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FIRST REPORT 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



ORGANIZED, JUNE i3, J 900 



Boston : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

234-236 Congress Street 

1901 



K ! 

'•'Iv. 



FIRST REPORT 

OF THE ' 

NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

ORGANIZED, JUNE 13, 1900 



Boston : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALKN & CO. 

234-236 Congress Street 

1901 



I 






Glft 
The Society 



FIRST REPORT 



OF THE 



Dew Cngland Catholic (historical Society. 

ORGANIZED, JUNE 13, 1900, 



The lack of concerted action as regards Catholic historical work in 
New England has long been noticed. Local chronicles, parish sketches 
and diocesan histories have from time to time come before the public, 
but their character has not been such as to give entire satisfaction, as 
they did not exhibit the depth of research that such work calls for. 
The philosophy of history has not been given due consideration, nor 
can this be done until practically all the data that lie hidden shall have 
been brought to light. To reach final results in so broad a field, the 
delvers must be many, their inquiries thorough, and their conclusions 
verified, correlated and compiled methodically. A necessary means to 
such an end is the impulse of organization, which, moreover, serves as 
a splendid guide to individual effort. 

This thought has been the inspiration of those who have brought 
into corporate being the New England Catholic Historical Society, and 
who have thereby determined to retrieve, if possible, past negligence, to 
foster honest research, and to provide the future with accurate material 
for real history. It is not the purpose of this society to content itself 
with parochial or diocesan chronicling, though this is an integral part 
of its scheme. Its aim is deeper and broader. It is to strive towards 
the perfecting of a complete presentation of Catholic events, and to show 
more clearly the influence of the Church in the New England States. 

The importance of this scheme and its wide scope will be re- 
flected, for example, in researches into the resultsof the Acadian colony 
in Maine and the bearing of the pre-Revolutionary Irish immigration on 
the life of the New England communities. The bringing of the first 
faint light of the Gospel to the rugged Maine coast, long before the 
landing of the Pilgrims, may not appear to throw into clearer per- 
spective the genesis of the present Catholic establishment, but its in- 
fluence though remote is real. 



New England Catholic Historical Society. 



All such influences (and there are many yet screened from public 
view) will, when brought together for studious comparison or contrast, 
confer upon the future historian invaluable aid in the building up of 
a well ordered and scientific history of Catholicity in New England. 

Material for this purpose is to be sought in town, county, and 
state archives, in old letters and reports, in public and private libraries, 
and in wisely sifted traditions. All this entails the labor of many 
minds, the combined results of whose conscientious investigations will, 
it is hoped, be brought into a consistent whole through the New Eng- 
land Catholic Historical Society. 

A preliminary meeting of clergymen, called by the Very Reverend 
Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Boston to consider the formation 
of such a society, was held in St. Joseph's Hall, Allen St., Boston, May 
30, 1900. Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, D.D., V. G., presided. After the 
reading of several letters expressing sympathy with the object of the 
call, the chairman announced, among other things, that the bishops of 
the province had signified their approval of the proposed organization 
and that most of them had, on invitation, forwarded lists of individuals, 
lay and clerical, to represent their respective dioceses in the society. 
It was voted at this meeting that the Very Reverend Chairman and the 
Reverend Chancellor of the Archdiocese be constituted a committee to 
draft a constitution and by-laws, to print the same, and to send a copy 
thereof to every prospective member. 

A general meeting, called under the authority of the temporary 
organization, to form the New England Catholic Historical Society was 
held Wednesday, June 13, 1900, in St. Joseph's Hall, 8 Allen St., 
Boston. The following gentlemen were present : — 



Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, D.D., V.G., Boston. 

Rev. Wm. P. McQuaid, Boston. 

Rev. Joseph H. Gallagher, Boston. 

Rev. Philip J. O'Donnell, Boston. 

Rev. W. G. R. Mullan, S.J., Boston. 

Rev. J. W. McMahon, D.D., Boston. 

Rev. James N. Supple, Boston. 

Rev. M. J. Doody, Boston. 

Hon. Joseph D. Fallon, Boston. 

P. F. Smith, M. D., Boston. 

Francis P. Silva, M.D., Boston. 

Wm. T. Cashman, Esq., Boston. 

Francis J. Campbell, Esq., Boston. 

Mr. Bernard Corr, Boston. 



Mr. Samuel J. Kitson, Boston. 

Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, P.R., Lynn, Mass. 

Rev. James O'Doherty, P.R., Haverhill, 

Mass. 
Rev. Louis S. Walsh, D.C.L., Salem, Mass. 
Rev. Joshua P. Bodfish, Canton, Mass. 
Rev. Wm. F. Powers, Merrimac, Mass. 
Rev. T. J. Fitzgerald, Milford, Mass. 
Rev. John E. Finen, Tilton, N. H. 
Rev. Wm. G. Mullin, Lowell, Mass. 
Mr. Edmund Reardon, Cambridge, Mass. 
Thomas F. O'Malley, Esq., Somerville, 

Mass. 
Hugh F. A. Farrell, Esq., Salem, Mass. 



New England Catholic Historical Society. 5 

The draft of the proposed constitution and by-laws was submitted 
and was, after several changes, adopted as follows : — 

Article I. The name of this Society shall be the New England 
Catholic Historical Society. 

Article II. — The objects of this Society are to promote Catholic 
historical research and a wider knowledge of the origins of the Catholic 
Church in New England ; to make accessible documents and records relat- 
ing to the same ; to have made and preserved in each parish a careful 
record of ecclesiastical events ; to promote especial study of distinguished 
churchmen and important events ; to print from time to time approved 
monographs and lectures on the above-named topics ; and to collect in one 
place historical materials. 

Article III. — The Society shall consist of Honorary and Active mem- 
bers. The honorary members shall be the Bishops of the Provinces, and 
others who, because of distinguished services in the interests of the Church, 
may from time to time be elected by a two-thirds vote at any stated meet- 
ing of the Society. All applications for membership shall be referred to 
the Executive Board and, if approved by them, submitted to the Society. 
Every member shall pay into the treasury of the Society an annual fee of 
three dollars, and shall remain a member in good standing as long as he 
pays this annual fee on or before the first Wednesday of June, each year ; 
but when two full years in arrears he shall be dropped from the roll of 
membership unless his dues are paid within one month after notice is sent 
him of his default. Any one eligible to membership in the Society may 
obtain life membership by payment of thirty dollars. Every member in 
good standing shall be entitled to one free copy of all the publications of 
the Society. 

Article IV. — The officers of the Society shall be a President, Vice- 
President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Librarian, who shall be elected at the 
annual meeting on the first Wednesday in June each year, but in default of 
such meeting shall hold office until their successors are elected. Their 
duties shall be the same as those of like officers in similar societies. 

Article V. — There shall be an Executive Board consisting of the 
officers above named and the Chairmen of Standing Committees. This 
Board shall have power to transact all business of the Society, except the 
election of members, that may become urgent during the intervals between 
the stated annual meetings. 

The President shall appoint all Standing Committees and fill vacancies 
as they occur. The Executive Board shall meet at such time and place as 



6 New England Catholic Historical Society. 

may be determined by the President, and made known to them by the Sec- 
retary one week in advance. 

Article VI. — Ten members shall constitute a quorum at any meet- 
ing of the Society, and three members at any meeting of the Executive 
Board. 

Article VII. — The Standing Committees shall be: — On Archives 
and Historical Materials ; on Historical Research ; on Publication and 
Public Meetings ; on Finance and Ways and Means, and shall consist of 
three members each, to be appointed annually by the incoming President. 
A majority of each shall constitute a quorum. The first named member of 
each committee shall be the Chairman thereof. 

Spofford's Manual, in the absence of a rule made by the Society, shall 
be the guide in all proceedings. These By-laws may be amended at any 
stated meeting of the Society, provided, one week's notice of such intended 
amendment be given to the members by the Secretary. 

Article VIII. — Any action disposing of the assets of the Society, or 
the surrender of its charter, shall be valid only when consented to in writ- 
ing by four-fifths of the members. 



The following gentlemen v^ere elected officers of the Society: — 

Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, D.D., V.G., Boston, President. 

Mr. Bernard Corr, Boston, Vice-President. 

Rev. Wm. F. Povv^ers, Merrimac, Mass., Secretary. 

Very Rev. Thomas F. Doran, D.C.L., V.G., 92 Hope street, 
Providence, R.I., Treasurer. 

Hon. John F. Cronan, Boston, Librarian. 

The Constitution and By-Laws having been adopted as By-Laws 
with a view to obtaining a charter, it was declared to be the sense of 
the meeting that an effort should be made to have a historical record of 
every parish in New England secured and gathered together as a part 
of the preparation for a suitable celebration of the centenary of the 
Archdiocese of Boston, A. D., 1908. 

The meeting adjourned, subject to the call of the President. 



New England Catholic Historical Society. 7 

Subsequent to the meeting, the following committees were, accord- 
ing to the Constitution, appointed by the President : — 

On Archives and Historical Material — Rev. Richard Neagle, P.R., 
of Maiden, Mass. ; Col. D. S. Lamson of Weston, Mass. ; Mr. Thomas 
Hamilton Murray of Woonsocket, R.I. 

On Historical Research — 

Rev. James H. O'Donnell of Watertown, Conn. ; Mr. William A. 
Leahy of Boston; Rev. Louis S. Walsh, D.C.L., of Salem, Mass. 

On Publications and Public Meetings : — 

Hon. Joseph D. Fallon of Boston ; Thomas J. Gargan Esq. of 
Boston ; Mr. James W. Dunphy of Boston. 

On Finance and Ways and Means : — 

Hon. Henry F. Naphen of Boston ; Mr. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick of 
Boston ; Hon. John C. Linehan of Concord, N. H. 

It is proposed to establish a consulting board consisting of the officers 
and all members of committees, and such other members as may be 
from time to time designated by the President or the Society. 



New England Catholic Historical Society. 



ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, D.D., V.G., Boston. 
Right Rev. Monsignor Magennis, Boston. 
Rev. D. O'Callaghan, D.D., P. R., Boston. 
Very Rev. John B. Hogan, S.S., S.T.D. 

Boston. 
Rev. John W. McMahon, D.D., Boston. 
Rev. L. P. McCarthy, P.R., Boston. 
Rev. Joseph V. Tracy, D.D., Boston. 
Rev. Joseph H. Gallagher, Boston. 
Rev. Wm. P. McQuaid, Boston. 
Rev. P. J. Daly, Boston. 
Rev. John J. Frawley, C.SS.R., Boston. 
Rev. Peter Ronan, Boston. 
Rev. R. J. Johnson, Boston. 
Rev. James N. Supple, Boston. 
Rev. Philip J. O'Donnell, Boston. 
Rev. John J. McNulty, Boston. 
Rev. M. J. Doody, Boston. 
Rev. W. G. R. Mullan, S.J., Boston. 
Hon. Joseph D. Fallon, Boston. 
Hon. John F. Fitzgerald, Boston. 
Hon. Joseph H. O'Neil, Boston. 
Hon. Henry F. Naphen, Boston. 
Hon. P. A. Colllins, Boston. 
Hon. John F. Cronan, Boston. 
Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston. 
Charles F. Donnelly, Esq., Boston. 
M. J. Jordan, Esq., Boston. 
Francis J. Campbell, Esq., Boston. 
Wm. T. Cashman, Esq., Boston. 
P. F. Smith, M.D., Boston. 
Thomas Dwight, M.D., Boston. 
M. F. Gavin, M.D, Boston. 
P. F. Gavin, M.D., Boston. 
John B. Moran, M.D., Boston. 
P. J. Timmins, M.D., Boston. 
Wm. J. Gallivan, M.D., Boston. 
Francis P. Silva, M.D., Boston. 
Thomas J. Giblin, D.M.D., Boston. 
Mr. Stephen O'Meara, Boston. 
Mr. Samuel Kitson, Boston. 
Mr. John P. Dore, Boston. 



Mr. Thos. B. Fitzpatrick, Boston. 

Mr. P. F. Sullivan, Boston. 

Mr. Charles V. Dasey, Boston. 

Mr. John J. Kennedy, Boston. 

Mr. James Vv'. Dunphy, Boston. 

Mr. Wm. A. Leahy, Boston. 

Mr. Herbert S. Carruth (Beaumont St.) 

Boston. 
Mr. Henry Canning, Boston. 
Mr. Wm. Hopkins, Boston. 
Mr. Hugh P. McNally, Boston. 
Mr. Bernard Corr, Boston. 
Mr. Joseph V. Donahoe, Boston. 
Mr. John B. Fitzpatrick, Boston. 
Mr. Peter F. Gartland, Boston. 
Mr. Samuel Tuckerman, Boston. 
Miss Katherine E. Conway, Boston. 
Mrs. Mary E. Blake, Boston. / 

Mrs. Helen Nordhoff Gargan, Boston. / 
Rev. John Flatley, Cambridge, Mass. 
Mr. Edmund Reardon, Cambridge, Mass. 
Miss Emma F. Cary, Cambridge, Mass. 
Rev. C. T. McGrath, Somerville, Mass. 
Thomas F. O'Malley, Esq., Somerville, 

Mass. 
Rev. Thomas H. Shahan, Maiden, Mass. 
Rev. Richard Neagle, P.R., Maiden, Mass. 
Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, P.R., Lynn, Mass. 
Rev. J. C. Harrington, Lynn, Mass. 
Rev. Louis S. Walsh, D.C.L., Salem, Mass. 
Hugh F. A. Farrell, Esq., Salem, Mass. 
Rev. Michael Ronan, Lowell, Mass. 
Rev. W. G. MuUin, Lowell, Mass. 
Rev. James T. O'Reilly, O.S.A., Lawrence, 

Mass. 
Mrs. K. A. O'K. O'Mahoney, Lawrence, 

Mass. 
Rev. Joshua P. Bodfish, Canton, Mass. 
Col. D. S. Lamson, Weston, Mass. 
Rev. John I. Lane, Marblehead, Mass. 
Rev. James O'Doherty, P. R., Haverhill, 

Mass. 



New England Catholic Historical Society 



/ 



Rev. Wm. F. Powers, Merriniac, Mass. 
Rev. E. S. Fitzgerald, Springfield, Mass. 
Mr. E. A. Hall, Springfield, Mass. 
Right Rev. Monsignor Griffin, Worcester, 

Mass. 
Rev. Bernard S. Conaty, Worcester, Mass. 
George McAleer, M.D., Worcester, Mass. 
Mr. John E. Lynch, Worcester, Mass. 
Rev. C. E. Brunault, Holyoke, Mass. 
P. J. Garvey, Esq., Holyoke, Mass. 
Rev. James Boyle, Pittsfield. Mass. 
Miss Katherine T. Mullaney, Pittsfield, 

Mass. 
Rev. E. J. Fitzgerald, Clinton, Mass. 
Rev. Thomas J. Fitzgerald, Milford, Mass. 
Rev. Wm. F. Grace, Gilbertville, Mass. 
Rev. J. J. McCoy, P.R., Chicopee, Mass. 
Rev. John F. Redican, Leicester, Mass. 
Rev. James Coyle, Taunton, Mass. 
Hon. John W. Cummings, Fall River, Mass. 
Rev. Wm. A. Power. Blackstone, Mass. 
Rev. Charles W. Collins, Portland, Me. 
Mr. E. J. Young, Portland, Me. 
Very Rev. M. C. O'Brien, V.G., Bangor, Me. 
Mr. Wilfrid A. Hennessey, Bangor, Me. 
Mr. Peter C. Keegan, Van Buren, Me. 
Miss Kate Vannah, Gardiner, Me. 
James F. Brennan, Esq., Peterborough, 

N. H. 
Rev. John E. Finen, Tilton, N. H. 
Hon. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H. 
Rev. J. H. Milette, P.R., Nashua, N. H. 
Mr. W. V. Scully, Burlington, Vt. 



Very Rev. E. M. O'Callaghan, V.G., Con- 
cord, N. H. 
Miss Jennie Hoyt, Burlington, Vt. 
Rev. D. J. O'Sullivan, St. Albans, Vt. 
Hon. F. W. McGettrick, St. Albans, Vt. 
Rev. W. N. Lonergan, White River Junc- 
tion, Vt. 
Mr. Frank H. O'Neil, White River Junc- 
tion, Vt. 
Rev. Jerome M. Gelot, Underbill Centre, 

Vt. 
Daniel A. Guiltinan, Esq.. Bennington, Vt. 
Mr. T. H. Kett, Fairhaven, Vt. 
Col. James Lillis, Rutland, Vt. 
Rev. W. J. O'Sullivan, Montpelier, Vt. 
Very Rev. T. F. Doran, D.C.L., V.G., Provi- 
dence, R. I. 
Rev. Thos. F. Kelly, Providence, R. I. 
Rev. Austin Dowling, Providence, R. I. 
Charles E. Gorman, Esq., Providence, R. I. 
Alphonse Gaulin, Esq., Woonsocket, R. I. 
Mr. Thomas Hamilton Murray, Woon- 
socket, R. I. 
Mr. Richard Bliss, Newport, R. I. 
Rev. Walter J. Shanley, Hartford, Conn. 
Rev. Thos. S. Duggan, Hartford, Conn. 
Hon. Thomas McManus, Hartford, Conn. 
Miss Ella Fanning, Norwich, Conn. 
Rev. Charles J. McElroy, Derby, Conn. 
Rev. James H. O'Donnell, Watertown, 

Conn. 
Rev. Thos. J. Shahan, S.T.D., Washington, 
D.C. 



The present document has been issued with a view to make known 
to the members the doings and plans of the Society. Thus far, the 
efforts of the projectors have been directed towards the perfecting of a 
sound organization. Arrangements have been made for the prepara- 
tion of at least one historical paper for the next regular meeting. It is 
hoped that the members (to every one of whom a copy of this docu- 
ment will be sent) will, though widely scattered, take an active interest 
in the work of the Society, and send the annual fee to the Treasurer in 
advance of the next annual meeting which is hereby called for June 5, 
4 p. M., at No. 8 Allen Street, Boston. 

Formal notice of all meetings and of all proposed measures relat- 
ing to the organization will be given to every member. 

Wm. F. Powers, Secretary. 



J 



THE EARLY 

IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS 

1 8 35-1 8 52 

BY 

REV. LOUIS S. WALSH, S. T. L. 

Member of New England Catholic Historical Society 



BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

234 and 2j6 Congress Street 

1901 



THE EARLY 

IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS 

1835-1852 

BY 

REV. LOUIS S. WALSH, S. T. L. 

Member of New England Catholic Historical Society 



BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

2jif. and 2j6 Congress Street 
1901 



C^-M^" 



Gift 
The Society 



THIS paper was prepared from the original manuscript or printed documents of the 
School Board of Lowell, the Reports of the State Board of Education, from offi- 
cial messages of the Governor of the State and from the records of the Academy 
in Lowell. 

It was read at the High Mass in St. Patrick's Church, Lowell, on Sunday, April 21, 
1901, and, with some additions, at the Catholic Union Hall, Boston, under the auspices of 
the New England Catholic Historical Society, on Friday Evening, May 31, 1901. 

It was also read, in part, at a meeting of the above Historical Society, in Boston, 
on Wednesday, June 5, 1901. At this meeting an interesting fact was stated by one of 
the members, Charles E. Gorman, Esq., of Providence, namely, that his own grandmother 
Mrs. Mary J. Woodbury, a convert to the church, was the first primary teacher in the 
Irish Catholic Schools of Lowell, and that his own mother, then Miss Sarah J. Woodbury, 
was also a teacher in later years, and that the latter was living at the present time and had 
confirmed what was published by Fr. Walsh. 



(U3 



Cbe €arly Trisb Catholic Schools. 

OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. 



THIS title in an essay of the old "New Englander Review," April, 
1848, sets one a-thinking, and puzzling questions arise from 
the following note in the United States Catholic Directory, 
1 845-1 849: "There are common schools for both male and female 
children in most of the cities and towns of this diocese (Boston), having 
Catholic teachers. In Lowell they are supported at the public expense ; 
but in all other places at the expense of the parents of the children, 
aided by collections in the churches." What ? Is it possible .■• In 
the State of Massachusetts ? Catholic schools supported at the public 
expense ? Yes, possible, true, a fact. Listen now and the story will 
be told. 

Religion, the Orthodox faith, that is, the Congregational church 
doctrine was not only honored, it was supreme in old Colonial Massa- 
chusetts, and right down to 1830 the union of church and state was 
strong in theory, though always waning in practice. 

A brief review of the early Massachusetts idea of religion and 
education will naturally lead us up to our story. 

There was not in the strict constitutional sense of the phrase 
" union of church and state " in Massachusetts, but there was the 
unwavering conviction that religion was the foundation of society, hence 
that its furtherance was a private function of the body politic, "its 
support by taxation a necessity." The statute left it open for each 
town to decide what ecclesiastical order it would adopt and support, so 
strong was the principal of home rule and town government. 

The people were all of one church, the Congregational, for a long 
time, and no one could vote, much less hold office, unless he were a 
church member. 

These people, so anxious for their civil and religious liberty, did 
not wish persons of any other denominations to come or to stay, but 
fear of losing their charter privileges held them in check ; Episco- 
palians and Quakers, later Baptists made their way in, and when these 



6 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

dissenters were numerous enough the law was changed, so as to allow 
each separate congregation to claim its share of the ecclesiastical tax 
for the support of a clergyman of its own persuasion. This conviction, 
" so strongly was it intrenched in popular tradition," was made an 
article in the Bill of Rights, forming part of the new Constitution of 
Massachusetts in 1780, namely, suitable provision to be made "for the 
support and maintenance of public Protestant teachers of piety, religion 
and morality." Indeed John Adams at the Constitutional Congress in 
Philadelphia, declared " that a change in the solar system might be 
expected as soon as a change in the ecclesiastical system of Massachu- 
setts." He was not a good prophet, for the stars still roll on in their 
courses, while the secular spirit has destroyed the Massachusetts 
system. 

The Congregational church and doctrine were built up and main- 
tained by such legislation, and despite the fact that the Federal Con- 
stitution distinctly opposed all such religious tests and props, in Mass- 
achusetts up to April 9, 1 82 1, "no person was eligible to the office of 
governor, lieutenant-governor, or councillor, or to that of senator or 
representative of the general court, unless he would make oath to a 
belief in the particular form of religion, adopted or sanctioned by the 
state." Again until November 11, 1833, " every citizen was taxable 
by the constitution and laws of the state for the support of the Protes- 
tant religion, whether he were a Catholic or Protestant or a believer in 
any other faith." 

What has been said of religion, may be equally said of education, 
for the two were inseparable, in fact the prime motive of education, 
primary, grammar and college, was to build up religious, and particu- 
larly Congregational men. Education was necessary to know " the 
principles of religion and the capital laws of the country " hence was 
compulsory by statute law. Religious training was even more desir- 
able, the very end and motive of education, hence honored, and given 
the most important place. 

The division of money for public worship and for schools was pos- 
sible, was practical, was working smoothly in harmony with civil rights 
and religious liberty. 

When the public school movement began to make headway, at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, it was understood that the religious 
instruction was not to be interfered with, and the ministers of the 
various denominations, while wishing to enter into the new way, 



IN LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. 7 

declared that they would give up the whole plan and return to denomi- 
national schools, rather than yield on the fundamental point. After 
having, for two hundred years, built up and maintained the " glorious 
old Commonwealth " by denominational religious schools, and having 
prided themselves thereon, these people all at once saw a new kind of 
light flash out from some hitherto unknown source, and the pious rulers 
then decided that, after all, religious training was not so necessary and 
could very well be dispensed with. The star of secularism, with its 
pale reflected light from French Atheism and Naturalism, appeared on 
the horizon. Unitarian idealism, to be personified in Horace Mann, 
was just peeping out of the clouds, and these two flickering rationalistic 
rays were guiding Massachusetts away from her old traditional course. 
The logic of events, however, was the most potent factor of all, and as 
the " Irish" and so-called "papists" were coming in every ship, they 
too would rightfully claim and logically demand their own religious 
training, hence better far to give it up entirely, than to grant it to them. 
(See Martin : Evolution of the Mass. School System, p. 229-231.) 

Now Lowell was one of the chief centres for the Irish people, and 
already from 1822 to 1831, they settled in good numbers on the 
" Acre " as the district of the present St. Patrick's parish was popularly 
known. Lowell was a mission of Salem from 1827 to 1831, Father 
Mahoney being the pastor, and it is certain that previous to 1829 he 
opened a school " in a two-story building, next above Dr. Blanchard's 
meeting-house on Merrimack Street," and placed an Irish schoolmaster 
in charge. Possibly this school, perhaps an earlier effort, is referred to, 
in the following : "By the advice and efforts of philanthrophic persons, 
a room was soon (after 1822) rented and supplied with fuel and other 
necessaries, and a teacher placed there, who was remunerated by a 
small weekly tax, I think six cents a week for each child (the common 
tariff in those days). From the poverty, however, and indifference of 
these parents (just as in the case of the first Puritans), the school was 
always languishing and became extinct. From time to time it revived, 
and then after months of feebleness again failed." 

At the annual town meeting in May, 1830, an article was inserted 
in the warrant for the appointment of a committee to " consider the 
expediency of establishing a separate school for the benefit of the Irish 
population." The committee reported in April, 1831, in favor of such 
a school. The report was accepted, and on the old district plan, the 
sum of fifty dollars ($50) was appropriated for the maintenance of a 



8 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

separate district school for the Irish. Here was probably the first 
municipal regulation on such matters and the origin of the separation 
of the two races. The experiment failed, as " did all endeavors to con- 
nect these children with the Yankee Schools," says the chronicler. " It 
had many vicissitudes," " with an average number of children about 
thirty," "kept only a part of the year," " was often suspended, because 
a suitable room could not be had." On the whole, the situation was 
just as unsatisfactory in 1834 as in 1830. 

The question of dividing the school fund on a fair basis was evi- 
dently discussed, and the following letter from Rt. Rev. Bishop Fen- 
wick to an Irish Catholic gentleman in Lowell speaks in tones not to 
be misunderstood. Mr. Philip F. Scanlan, honorable and honored 
name, had moved from Dover, N. H., to Lowell because there was a 
Catholic school here and none there, and in answer to a letter on the 
question, written by him to the Rt. Rev. Bishop, received the reply : 

Boston, March 26, 1831. 
Dear Sir : 

I received a few days ago your kind communication. I see no impro- 
priety in the Catholic school in your town receiving aid from the school 
fund, especially if the Catholics of Lowell have contributed their portion 
by the payment of taxes or otherwise, toward the support of said fund. 
Common justice would entitle them to something out of it, for the payment 
of their Master. But I really do not understand how, in this liberal 
country, it can be made a condition to their receiving anything, that they, 
the Catholics, shall be in that case debarred from having a Catholic 
teacher, learning out of Catholic books and being taught the Catechism of 
the Catholic church. We can never accept such terms. I have no parti- 
ality for Mr. further than I think him a conscientious, good, moral 

man. As to his qualifications as a teacher I have not much to say. I am 
aware they are not very great, but are they not sufhcient as yet for those 
Httle children he has the care of ? However, if the good Catholics of 
Lowell have an objection to him, I shall not wish to retain him. But it is 
all important that the individual, whom they may select to replace him, be 
one qualified to instruct children in the principles of their religion, for I 
would not give a straw for that species of education, which is not accom- 
panied with and based upon religion. I remain, 

Your obedient servant, B. BP. BN. 

Clearer words to put forth the Catholic position have never been 
penned. 



OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. 9 

Father Mahoney was made pastor of Lowell a few months later, 
in July, 1 83 1, and soon had an assistant. Father Conelly. Two paro- 
chial schools had been established before 1835, one under St. 
Patrick's church, and one at a place called Chapel Hill. In 1835 Rev. 
Mr. Conelly made a formal application to the school committee for aid, 
and was present at several meetings with the following official results : 
School Report, March, 1836: "It is known to the citizens generally, 
that various fruitless attempts have been hitherto made to extend the 
benefits of our public schools more fully to our Irish population. Those 
attempts have been hitherto frustrated, chiefly perhaps by a natural 
apprehension on the part of the parents and pastors of placing their 
children under Protestant teachers, and in a measure also, by the 
mutual prejudices and consequent disagreements among the Protestant 
and Catholic children themselves. Your committee have great pleasure 
in stating that these difficulties appear to have been overcome, and the 
above most desirable object to have been finally accomplished. 

In June last. Rev. Mr. Conelly of the Catholic church applied to 
the committee for such aid as they might be able to give to his exer- 
tions for the education and improvement of the children under his 
charge. The committee entered readily and fully into his views, and 
in subsequent interviews a plan was matured and has since been put 
into operation. On the part of the committee, the following conditions 
were insisted upon as indispensable before any appropriation of the 
public money could be made : 

1. That the instructors must be examined as to their qualifica- 
tions by the committee, and receive their appointments from them. 

2. That the books, exercises and studies should all be prescribed 
and regulated by the committee, and that no other whatever should be 
taught or allowed. 

3. That these schools should be placed, as respects the examin- 
ation, inspection and general supervision of the committee, on precisely 
the same footing with the other schools of the town. 

On the part of Mr. Conelly it was urged that to facilitate his 
efforts, and to render the scheme acceptable to his parishioners, the 
instructors must be of the Catholic faith, and that the books prescribed 
should contain no statements of facts not admitted by that faith, nor 
any remarks reflecting injuriously upon their system of belief. These 
conditions were assented to by the committee ; the books in use in our 
other public schools were submitted to his inspection, and were by him 
fully approved. 



lO EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

On these principles the committee proceeded, June 14, 1835, "to 
assume supervision of the private school already existing under the 
Catholic church," and elected Patrick Collins its teacher, one of the 
public instructors. They next chose Miss Stevens, teacher of a primary 
school, to be established in the same place. This lady, " not being to 
be procured," Mary J. Woodbury was chosen. On September 14, 
1835, another Catholic school, in the vicinity of Chapel Hill, taught by 
Daniel Mcllroy, under the auspices of Rev. Mr. Conelly, was adopted 
as a town school, and the salary fixed the same as in other schools. 

The number of pupils becoming very large, an assistant was 
necessary, and in June, 1836, Richard Walsh was chosen at one hun- 
dred and twenty-five dollars ($125) per annum. The school of Mr. 
Collins was for the older and advanced pupils, and he has been paid at 
the rate of four hundred and fifty dollars (^450) per annum, which is 
the average compensation of teachers in the writing and grammar 
schools, including principals and assistants. 

In the summer of 1837 another room was prepared under the 
Catholic church, a new Catholic school, being the fourth, was opened, 
and Mary Ann Stanton elected its teacher. In June, 1838, Mr. 
Collins' and Mr. Mcllroy's schools were united, denominated " Fifth 
Grammar School," and moved to Liberty hall, since which time the 
distinction between grammar and primary schools has obtained in Irish 
and other schools. 

Such was the Lowell system of separate Irish Catholic schools, 
with Catholic teachers, books approved by the Rev. Pastor, school- 
rooms in the Catholic church, or rented elsewhere, teachers and all 
current expenses paid by the town. It will be noticed that nothing is 
said about "religious instruction," and probably that was allowed, per- 
haps was given by the priest. Devotional exercises, after 1837, were 
not only allowed, but openly encouraged, could be most harmoniously 
adjusted to the wants and tastes and convictions of all parents and chil- 
dren. Bishop Fenwick certainly would not otherwise accept the plan. 

Did the system work .-• How was it developed .-* When and how 
did it cease .'' The authentic records will answer all these natural 
questions. " These schools have been in operation more than half a 
year, and your committee have the satisfaction of believing them to 
have been eminently successful, and that they are doing much good to 
this hitherto neglected portion of the community. Children brought 
under the influence of these schools during the year, numbered four 



OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. H 

hundred and sixty-nine ; the average number attached to the school 
has been two hundred and eighty-two, of which the average daily 
attendance has been two hundred and eight, showing a punctuality and 
regularity of attendance fully equal to the other schools. The com- 
mittee think the advantages of this arrangement must have been 
obvious to every observer. In the improved condition of our streets, 
in their freedom from noisy, truant and quarrelsome boys, and it is 
confidently hoped they will soon be equally obvious in the improved 
condition and respectability of these children, in their redemption from 
intellectual and moral degradation (familiar Yankee terms for poverty, 
untidiness and lack of schooling). The committee was generous in 
appropriating money, and would earnestly recommend these schools to 
the continual fostering care of their fellow citizens. Nor can they re- 
frain from expressing their obligations in the prosecution of this object, 
to the benevolent and persevering efforts of Rev. Mr. Conelly, to whose 
zealous and efficient co-operation their success may be mainly at- 
tributed." 

A similar report was made in 1838. "A general interest is 
manifested in the prosperous condition of our Irish schools. They now 
consist of three grammar and two primary schools, kept by four male 
and two female teachers. The whole number of different pupils re- 
ported as having attended these schools more or less during the year, is 
seven hundred and fifty-two. Most of these pupils attended three 
months at least. The average number connected with these schools at 
once, is four hundred and thirty-five ; average daily attendance three 
hundred and forty-two ; increase this year, one hundred and twenty-two 
in average number, and eighty-three in daily attendance." 

The same satisfactory report was made year after year. In 1842 
the city even prided itself upon the great success. " From inquiries," 
the Report says, " informally made respecting the bearing of the com- 
mon school system upon the Irish population in other cities and large 
towns, the committee have derived new evidence of the wisdom of the 
plan adopted in this city and which is believed to be peculiar to our- 
selves. No other place, it is supposed, can exhibit the same proportion 
of this class of children in the common schools. Their general attend- 
ance at school can scarcely be too highly appreciated even as a matter 
of policy and protection from juvenile delinquency. As these children 
are admitted to the High school, and to all other schools, when their 
parents desire it, on the same terms with other children, the system is 



t^ EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

chargeable, on our part, with no prejudice or exclusiveness. Nowhere 
has greater proficiency been witnessed than in these schools. Nor can 
any countervailing evils be apprehended from the concessions, by which 
these benefits are secured, as long as the course of study and instruc- 
tion is prescribed by the committee and is the same as in other 
schools. 

Grammar school, No. 5, and primaries 11 (basement of CathoUc 
church), 15, 19, 21 are of this description. All the grammar school 
houses, but the building occupied by the Irish grammar No. 5, are 
owned by the city. A new house for the more perfect accommodation 
of that interesting school, in a more eligible situation, is much wanted. 
The Irish primaries 11, 15, 19, 21, 22, on Lowell, Fenwick and Winter 
streets, are all well conducted and better patronized than heretofore. 
They are quite too full ; and it is very desirable that other rooms for 
one or two schools in or near the new Catholic church (St. Peter's) 
should be immediately furnished by the city." 

For eight years harmony prevailed, and good results were recog- 
nized on all sides. The agreement had been carefully and faithfully 
carried out. The teachers, in addition to above mentioned, were the 
following : William Flynn, Peter McDermott, James Egan, Sarah J. 
Woodbury, Catherine A. Hogan, Arvilla Woodward, Esther C. How- 
land, Jane V. Dennahy, Louisa M. Adams, Catherine Callaghan, Anna 
Freil, E. D. Sanborn and J. W. Walsh. 

In June, 1 844, there were one grammar and five primary schools, 
having Irish Catholic children exclusively, an average of about six 
hundred and thirty-eight with average daily attendance of four hundred 
and forty-three. At no time did the committee feel better satisfied 
with the attendance and proficiency in studies and deportment. There 
had been, however, rumors of trouble for some months, and a storm was 
evidently about to break. 

The Catholic parents presented in June a petition, numerously 
signed, calling for the removal of seven teachers (right of petition and 
respectful hearing) and the principal of grammar school No. 5, Mr. 
Flynn, resigned at the end of the month. 

The summer vacation followed, about two weeks, and on July 15, 
at the reopening of school, only one hundred and thirty-two pupils 
appeared, to the surprise and regret of the committee. " The Irish 
schools were suddenly annihilated for nearly three weeks," 

An investigation followed and the committee felt called upon to 



OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. I^ 

review the whole policy touching the special agreement for Irish 
Catholic schools. A sub-committee was appointed " to report the his- 
tory of the practice and the arrangements which have been entered 
into in relation to this matter by the Town and former committee." 

After several secret hearings, full debate on the causes of the 
recent trouble and the report of the sub-committee, it was judged best 
not to provoke any useless quarrels by the publication of the charges, 
to accept the resignation of Mr. Flynn, to elect a new principal and to 
continue in force the agreement. 

This episode, to superficial minds perhaps discreditable and to be 
cited as a fact and argument against the system, ought and would prove 
to more thoughtful people and practical educators that Catholics were 
not blind to fgiults of a serious kind in the teachers of their own race 
and religion, but had the good of the schools always at heart, and 
would use every just and reasonable means to maintain a fair standard. 
Hence, on October 9, 1 844, schools were again in good order. The 
name, however, of the new principal, Mr. Shattuck, already suggests 
what was to become eventually of the original contract, and forebodes 
danger of final disruption. In 1845 the committee reported of school 
No. 5 : " Notwithstanding a year of many adverse influences and dis- 
couragements, this was a quiet and pleasing school." 

In 1847, the primary schools 15, 22 and 32, which had been for 
several years under the Catholic church at Fenwick Street, were 
removed to a new schoolhouse on Adams Street. An effort, too, had 
been made to bring the pupils from the Irish schools into the High 
school, and many scholars were reported each year as well qualified, but 
the best pupils always " left school early to go to work in the mills," 
and in 1848, out of seven presented from grammar school No. 5, not 
one consented to go. 

The State Board of Education had made great progress in visiting 
the schools of the state, about this time, and already in 1850 the old 
No. 5 in Lowell was called the " Mann School " after the first secretary 
of the Board, Horace Mann, "the great American educational agitator." 

When his successor. Secretary Sears, visited this school in 1850, 
he wrote : " I have seen no school of the kind to equal it in all my visits 
to schools," and similar remarks were made after inspecting the pri- 
maries, thereby showing that Lowell had established a unique and suc- 
cessful system. The appointment of Catholic teachers had for one 
reason or other lapsed, for, 1848, in nine schoolrooms there were only 



I4 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

four Catholic teachers, and not any principals, hence a fundamental 
point had been supressed or weakened, just at a time when new condi- 
tions were to test the fibre and strength of the whole civic organization. 

The great waves of Irish immigration were rising fast and high in 
1848 and 1849, ^^d Lowell was one of the first places to feel the 
onward movement. 

In the year 1851 the state authorities felt and openly showed 
anxiety, even to intense alarm at the invasion of foreigners. The pur- 
pose of this is not to be discussed now, perhaps had better remain in 
misty historical background, but a regular crusade was started to com- 
pel attendance of all children at school, quite in contrast to the sleepy 
indifference that characterized so many of the towns and cities previous 
to that year. The " non-attendance of foreign children at school is 
assuming a fearful importance," says the State Board's report of 185 i, 
and the Lowell committee in citing this " cry of alarm " adds, " consti- 
tuting, as they do, nearly two-fifths of our school children in Lowell, an 
inquiry is pertinent." "A generous and enlightened," a "wise and 
liberal policy was adopted in Lowell." " Of the few schools attended 
only by the Irish some are deserving of the highest praise in point of 
order, vivacity and proficiency in study. The quickness, intelligence 
and spirit of the Celtic race are easily excited by a teacher of an earnest, 
commanding and enlightened nature." 

" At this time the ' Mann ' and ' Franklin ' schools (significant 
names) were the Irish schools of Lowell, and the Public High School 
was for a time in the old brick Catholic church on Suffolk Street, now 
the St. Patrick's boy's school, so cordial and intimate were the relations 
between the two peoples. Honeyed words, so nice and sweet, and 
awfully significant in view of the sequel, disclosing another mind and 
heart. In 1852 the Sisters of Notre Dame were introduced to teach a 
free school for girls in St. Patrick's parish by the Rev. John O'Brien, 
thus beginning, or better, reopening that great and grand movement 
that places Lowell to-day with its four thousand five hundred Catholic 
children in its seven schools, among the very first cities of the land in 
Catholic education. 

At first this event did not stir more than the surface, so serene, of 
the committee, and the only question was, whether, in view of the open- 
ing of a Catholic parochial school, the distinctive feature of the Irish 
schools should not be changed. 

This school, like the earlier parochial school, might have been 



OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. I 5 

taken under the supervision of the city authorities, the standards of 
state and city demanded, legitimate, reasonable inspection required, and 
thus, while giving all the education in mental and civic developments 
that could justly be imposed by state or city, would have added, as it 
did add to this day, the higher religious virtue and Christian character ; 
thus, too, exciting a wholesome competition with the merely secular or 
neutral schools. No good reason was alleged to disprove such a plan, 
it was simply a development, a perfecting of the happy compromise 
already reached, and would have thus stood forth, if the " Demon of 
bigotry " could only have been chained for a few years, and results 
awaited. 

The teachers were ladies of good, gentle, refined manners and 
education ; sunshine and dew of heaven for growing minds, hearts 
and souls ; coming to devote their lives to the education of others and 
asking only the means of a bare subsistence as compensation. The 
garb they wore was simple, perhaps a little singular to some untrained 
eyes, but, rightly understood, only intended to symbolize the purity, 
Christian penance, devotion and self-sacrifice of a whole life in talent, 
time and energy to the instruction of the young and the care of the 
poor. 

Alas ! no, it was not to be, and the Lowell system failed in one 
respect after sixteen years of trial, simply lapsed in another sense by 
the development of the parochial schools, and awaits perhaps our time 
to be again tested under more favorable circumstances and bright hopes. 
The principle was correct in the main, though not applied with suffi- 
cient breadth of vision to a complete development of the physical and 
spiritual fibre of the growing child. It was based upon respect for 
natural differences and conscientious needs, and, as peculiar to Lowell, 
exemplified that sturdy old axiom of home rule, so much idolized in 
theory in early New England, and often lost sight of in practice since, 
when something else seems to promise more power, or caters to selfish 
greed, or checks the inevitable slipping away of long continued sway. 
Lowell, and, in so far, Massachusetts, lost the golden opportunity of 
showing and perfecting a "just, wise and liberal policy " in the most 
important matter of education, and, if the truth must be said, allowed a 
stain to fall and remain on the reputation of the old Puritan Common- 
wealth. Liberty, equality, respect and consistency might, at least in 
Lowell, have swayed the committee, but in the next year, 1853, the 
"old Devil ran around in all his fury," and Lowell did not escape the 



l6 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

wide-spread disease, "inflammatory and contagious," with which the 
public American spirit seem to be inoculated. 

When one reads in the present light of facts and of the history of 
the past forty or fifty years, the lurid prophecies of danger and disaster, 
that were belched forth from pulpit and rostrum, governor's seat and 
judge's august tribunal — at the increasing waves of "illiterate 
foreigners" and "superstitious papists," "how the ship of state was to 
be tossed and wrenched unto destruction ;" "how the Catholic schools 
(otherwise called sectarian) were to be a danger to unity, liberty, knowl- 
edge, patriotism ; how darkness and ignorance greater than ever were 
to follow;" "how the great bulwark of our liberty and independence 
was to be undermined ; how the sacred inheritance of civil and religious 
liberty (which never existed in early Colonial Massachusetts) was to be 
stolen from the pious heirs;" "how our only hope lay in constitutional 
amendments, restricting for all time the influence and voting powers of 
the new comers from forefather's lands ; how the great, model Republic 
was doomed ; " when we read all this in the official documents, in the 
press and in the pulpits of the time, we are inclined, not indeed to 
anger, hatred or revenge, that would be unphilosophical, un-American, 
and non-Catholic, but rather to smile, even to have a hearty laugh, at 
the hysterical fear of the wise-acres, whose ears were truly to the 
ground, in the wake of diabolical echoes, instead of faces, minds and 
hearts uplifted to catch the new light and hope and strength from 
heaven's clear revelation. " Eyes they had and saw not, ears they had 
and heard not, minds they had and understood not the ways of the 
Almighty." 

This was the beginning of that shameful and shameless historical 
epoch, known as the Know-Nothing Movement. It is not with any 
desire to reopen an unpleasant wound, nor to stir up strife, nor to claim 
revenge, nor in any way to cause trouble that we allude to this, but 
simply as an historic episode, or disease, or illusion, or injustice, or 
whatever else we may please to call it, and lest we forget or rather the 
children forget that the historic facts and monuments of those evil 
years are to New England Catholics and in future centuries will be 
what the Catacombs of Rome and lists of heroes are for the early 
church, and the many souvenirs of English persecution in Ireland are 
to Erin's sons and daughters all over the world. 

I need not tell you, older Catholics of this great city, how the hos- 
tile feeling inflamed the public mind of this city ; how the band of 



or LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. 1 7 

fanatics came to destroy the convent and drive out the Sisters ; how 
they threatened to burn the church ; how the mayor and his committee 
came to "smell around" the convent and school in search for secret 
cells and dungeons ; how the Sisters were in dread night after night ; 
how the Irish girls and women and men gathered regularly their heaps 
of stones as ammunition against the enemy ; how the brave Father 
O'Brien and Father McNulty withstood the mob ; how governor, judge, 
mayor, militia and all seemed banded together in one diabolical tie and 
one hellish purpose ; how the spirit was put into rules of voting, laws 
against bearing firearms, constitutional amendments against Catholics ; 
how one name, your own General Butler, stands out in clear striking 
opposition to these wrongs ; how finally all this was in vain and passed 
away like a cloud, not to return, yet a warning to teach modern men 
and women not to repeat a page of history that must ever be a stain 
and shame upon Massachusetts. 

The unity of the glorious Republic was indeed, shortly after the 
outbreak, to be threatened seriously, but by its own colonial children's 
sons and daughters in the sunny South in defence of their own real or 
supposed rights, and the " aliens " and foreigners marched from Mass- 
achusetts to defend the dear young flag, the country's life, and 
moistened the fields of Virginia and Maryland with their Irish and 
Catholic blood. The Republic's glorious humanitarian doctrines were 
to be put forth (by many true Americans and statesmen, wrongfully, 
it is thought) to bring on a foreign unnecessary war with an old, 
friendly. Catholic and noble people, and the " sons of the foreign immi- 
grants of the 40's and 50's marched in solid columns to the cannon's 
mouth at Santiago, and manned the guns on the famous warships in 
Manila bay." Patriotic, loyal, patient and heroic in war, in peace these 
despised new-comers and their children have been the very back-bone 
of the great manufacturing centres of Massachusetts, and by the sweat 
of their brow and the strong muscular power of their arms have coined 
the gold that has built up these great cities of Boston, Lowell, Law- 
rence, Worcester and many similar places. Patriots in war, artisans, 
wealth-producers and industrious citizens in peace, they have been also 
home-builders, who have listened to the voice of God : " Increase and 
multiply and fill the earth;" "What God has joined together, let no 
man (judge, court or state) put asunder ; " " Treasure up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven." They have learned in the church called super- 
stitious and in the humble Irish and later French Catholic schools, the 



l8 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

very virtues that have made Massachusetts today almost as populous as 
the whole thirteen colonies at the close of the War of Independence. 

Shades of Gardiner, Washburn, Lord and the smaller imitators of 
1855, where now are your prophetic curses and threats and fears ? No, 
none of these things have happened and none can happen. The State 
has prospered and is secure, the liberties are maintained, the houses 
are intact and civilization has left you all, misty and musty prophets 
behind. Let Massachusetts then open her eyes to the light, let her 
redeem herself, and do justice to Catholic schools. 

The early schools were called " Irish " for the very plain reason 
that there were no other Catholics. Now there are French and 
German and Italian and Polish Catholics, who will all be willingly 
Americans, proud of their adopted country, hopeful, courageous, 
patriotic, even optimistic as regards the proud destiny which God has 
in store for this great nation, but ought not and will not sacrifice their 
God, their faith, their church, which are one and inseparable. 

To sum up, therefore, 65 years ago Catholic schools were sup- 
ported in the city of Lowell at the public expense. The plan was suc- 
cessful, so long as the conditions were respected. It failed only when 
the School Board suppressed, in practice, one of the most important 
conditions, namely, that teachers must be of the Catholic faith, and 
lapsed entirely when the passions of the multitude in this Common- 
wealth forced the hand of the Governor and Legislature, most willing 
servants, to put an unjust, yes, iniquitous, amendment upon the statutes 
of this State. The same plan was hoped for in other cities, was pro- 
posed even in Boston at one time, but for one or other reason was not 
acceptable, or, at least, was not accepted. 

Fifty years have passed by ; is it not time to reopen the ques- 
tion, and settle it on a basis in harmony with our present conditions } 
We have now three Bishops, 850 Priests, mere than 1,000,000 people, 
over one-third of the whole population of Massachusetts. There are 
62,000 children in our parochial schools. We thus save to the State or 
cities an investment of nearly $10,000,000 in school property, and 
annual expenses amounting to nearly $2,000,000. 

Upon every parent rests the solemn. Divine duty of giving a 
Catholic education to his children ; to every child is given the Divine 
right of receiving such an education. Citizens make up the State 
power and government and the institutions of the State ought to be 
in harmony with the duties of parents and the rights of children. We 



IN LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS. I9 

have the school buildings in a large number of places ; about 80 school 
houses in our own Archdiocese of Boston. We have the religious 
teachers, beautifully trained to do their work. We have the young 
lady and young gentlemen school teachers, splendidly equipped for any 
system that may be devised. 

If with this united power we cannot get a hearing, a respectful 
hearing, a fair opening on principles of justice, equity, wisdom, liberal- 
ity, harmony, unity and generosity, and thus secure a change even in 
the much-lauded public school system of Massachusetts, then the idea 
and thought, and talk and boasting of popular government and popular 
rights are all an illusion and a dream. The time seems ripe from 
another point of view. Only two weeks ago the Moderator of the 
Presbytarian National Assembly in Philadelphia uttered these words : 

" I do not wish to say an ill word against the public school system 
but have we, so morbidly afraid of uniting the Church with the State, 
gone so far as to disunite God from the State .■• This is a most serious 
question. The faith of our sons and daughters is involved, and the 
kingdom of God in our country is involved. It is not an organized 
scepticism that threatens, but a God-forgotten secularism." 

Only one week ago in the Unitarian Sunday School Society's anni- 
versary meeting, one of the ministers said : " The child has a right to 
a religious education. Most people, nevertheless, neglect the children, 
so far as religion is concerned. Now, our children do not receive a re- 
ligious education in the home. The reason is mostly timidity on the 
part of parents. A good many people plead that they have no time, but 
that is not only a confession of weakness, it is a confession of sin." 

The same sentiment and reprimand has been expressed by Presi- 
dent Eliot in a Unitarian gathering. It really does look as if the tide 
has begun to rise again by the combined attraction of the Sun of Jus- 
tice, our Divine Lord, and the Moon, which is the Church, reflecting 
the light of God and enlightening the earth. 

The Rt. Rev. Bishop McQuaid of Rochester said in Boston, in Feb- 
ruary, 1876, before the Free Religious Association: "Massachusetts 
or Boston will solve the complex school question, and do justice finally 
to parent, child, city. State and church." 

His clarion voice has never ceased ringing out the duties of parents 
and rights of children in Catholic education, and only two weeks ago 
he sounded the same high, clear, strong, unmistakable note at Buffalo, 
when he called upon Catholic men to assert their rights and defend them, 



20 EARLY IRISH CATHOLIC SCHOOLS 

and uttered these remarkable words: "It would be a happy day for 
America if women had the right of suffrage. When a question of con- 
science or the care of children is involved women will defy the poli- 
tician, and will vote as Christian men might vote if they had the 
courage." 

In the Lowell system he would have said that the question was 
almost solved. Let Lowell, or better still, Boston, have the honor of 
renewing or perfecting the compromise. Is it not time to seek a rea- 
sonable compromise .-' Is it not right to give to religion and to God the 
place that belongs to them in the growing minds and hearts of children 
that are to be our future men and women .-' 

Let the question be faced even as a business proposition, the 
building of a subway for instance. How quickly experiments will be 
made, how easily obstacles overcome, dangerous places strengthened, 
graceful curves made around difficulties that cannot be removed, and 
final success assured. The Lowell plan shows what a wise and liberal 
policy can be followed, when the interests of all are considered with un- 
prejudiced minds. 

Let the wise and statesmanlike gentlemen who now honors the 
Governor's chair in Massachusetts appoint a body of men learned and 
judicious, and free from partisan bias, to consider the whole question, 
and Massachusetts will soon find a solution to serve as a model for other 
States. Future generations will then praise our great city or Common- 
wealth for its intelligence and justice, and a grateful people, loving God 
and loving their State, will be faithful to Church and State, and hand 
down that loyalty from generation unto generation, until time shall 
be no more. So may it be. 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
PUBLICATIONS. 

No, 3, 



THE 

ACADIANS OF MADAWASKA, 



MAINE. 



BY 

Rev. CHARLES W. COLLINS, 

CHANCELLOR OF THE DIOCESE OF PORTLAND, ME. 



BOSTON. 
J 902. 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

234-236 Congress Street. 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
PUBLICATIONS. 

No. 3. 



THE 

ACADIANS OF MaDAWASKA, 



MAINE. 



BY 

Rev. CHARLES W. COLLINS, 

CHANCELLOR OF THE DIOCESE OF PORTLAND, ME. 



BOSTON. 
1902. 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

34-236 Congress Street. 



A DDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS PUBLI- 
CATION CAN BE HAD BY APPLYING 
TO THE LIBRARIAN, HON. JOHN F. 
CRONAN, 30 COURT STREET, BOSTON. 



Gift 
"be Society 

Vj H '04 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



If one examines on the map the vast and irreguhir 
outlines of the State of Maine, he will discern that its 
northeasterly boundary is formed in partby the river St. madawasKa. 
John flowing in a wide sweep from the mouth of the St. 
Francis river to a point three miles west of Grand Falls. 
In its progress along this curve, the river winds its way 
for the most part between high, wooded hills which give 
way where streams enter to alluvial plains, and, thrown 
back by the massive rock gorge at Grand Falls, it has 
spread out and formed in the course of time extensive 
intervales enriched by the periodical overflow. 

This long, narrow valley is fringed on both sides of 
the St. John with a line of farms which extend almost 
continuously throughout the 90 miles of its length, and 
though the line gathers in some two or three places into 
the semblance of a town, it is ordinarily a thin, double 
line of habitation hemmed in behind by vast forests. 
On the Canadian side a lazy railroad creeps up the river 
for 70 miles or so, but on the American side there is no 
railroad above Van Buren, the least remote town of the 
valley, and this inroad is of very recent date. Xot a 
bridge crosses the St. John throughout the long sweep 
of the river, and excepting in the towns mentioned the 
stores can almost be counted on the fingers. It is a coun- 
try of rugged and picturesque scenery, small houses and 
huge barns, and little modern comfort, given over almost 
entirely to agriculture. 

The region takes its name, Madawaska, from a small 
river which falls into the St. John 30 miles above Grand 
Falls, and has been occupied since 1785 by Acadians refu- 
gees from the expulsion of 1755, and their descendants. 
Though Canadian immigration and intermarriage have- 
played a most important part in the history of this tor- 



4 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

ritory, and numbers of people of English speech may be 
found there, especially in the towns, the character is 
definitely Acadian, and the people have preserved with 
little change through the vicissitudes of time and trouble 
the antique tongue, quaint customs and peasant virtues 
of Acadia and old France. 

The story of the Madawaska Acadians runs back 
through two centuries, for, though their occupancy of 
the upper St. John valley dates but from the last quar- 
ter of the ISth century, no narrative can do justice to 
them which fails to take into account the unpropitious 
beginnings of Port Eoyal, the unique isolation of Acadia 
from the polite world for more than a centmy, and the 
jDitiless political whirlwind which swept them from their 
native shores in 1755, naked and bewildered exiles. These 
circumstances, enmeshed with a vigilant hostility which 
attended the pioneers of Madawaska during their sojourn 
in Xew Brunswick and a peculiar boundary dispute be- 
tween the United States and Canada, choked educational 
and social development and left them until 1843 in po- 
litical chaos. The present day statistics of Madawaska 
must be interpreted in the light of these facts; and so 
Bourinot, p. 233, interpreted, do honor to it. The entire, little-known his- 

•' Story of Can- '^ 1 p • 

ada." tory of the Acadians posterior to the events of 1755 is 

a startling and pathetic verity, view it how you will, and 
evinces qualities of endurance, perseverance and faith in 
these illiterate peasants, inherent only in remarkable 
peoples, and almost lifts them to a place among the sto- 
ries of the nations. 

Acadia. 

Patten, u. s., p. Acadia was the first French colony in North Amer- 

Bancroft, u. s., ica. Poutriucourt's gentlemen adventurers established 
Thevaite^s" Col., thcmselves at Port Eoyal 16 years before the Pilgrims 
^^•^'•„ , landed at Plvmouth. Thoudi the members of this col- 

Greswell, Can., ' •- 

p. 109. ony dispersed and the venture failed, the germ of coloni- 

o er s, p. 51. ^^^|-Q^^ survived. The permanent colony was founded by 

Cbarnisav. PaziHy ancl Charnisay, who, between 1632-8, brought 

over sixty people from La Eochelle. Saintonge and 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 5 

Poitou. From these, most modern Acadians derive their 

lineage and their names. Eazilly's colonists saw in the HannayinC.H. 

marshes of the eonntry the counterpart of their native Hannay History 

■^ Acadia, p. i6. 

low-lying region of La Eochelle, and began that system Roberts, p. 46. 
of dykes which made the land famed for its fertility and ^c.'^"^"' ",,^; 
left the interior of the peninsula a forest primeval. Im- Hngio-Trcncb 
migration from France dropped off and finally ceased en- Wars. 
tirely. Acadia was practically left to its own devices, and 
the isolated colony having become self-supporting, ab- 
sorbed the remnants of Alexander's abortive enterprise, 
spread along the coast of the peninsula and the shores 
of the Bay of Fundy and became a peculiar and typical 
people. During the time that France and England strug- 
gled for the possession of North America, the Acadians ^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
rested in their retreats, taking as little part as possible ^^^^^^'p^^^^^ 
in the conflicts. Living wholly along the coasts, they ^"^'p Coi^°°jf*: 
were much exposed to attack and could hardly afford to Roberts, p. 95. 
invite hostility, even if so inclined ; but they were in fact 
a peaceful people. For all that, hardship and war worked 
havoc on the little settlements, and Grandfontaine's cen- 
sus in 1671 gives hardly more than -100 inhabitants for 
all Acadia. These 400, however, constituted the survival 
of the fittest, a solid and permanent group of people, well 
suited to become the parent stock of the future genera- Rameau, France 

-*- aux Colonies, 

tions. In origin the Acadians differed from the Cana- i.,p- 30-128. 

. -I T ±^ ■ Hannav,C.H.R. 

dians, and this difference was further increased by the m- p. ,,6. 
frequent relations between the two peoples. Canada 
was New France; Acadia a new land altogether. The 
original Acadians were a medley of fishermen, soldiers 
and adventurers of every sort, and it is not the least in- 
teresting thing about them that from this group was 
evolved a strong, simple and eminently moral people. Their 
strength and enterprise may be gathered from the fact 
that they soon became self-supporting, while Canada ever Rameau, i^., i., 
leant on the mother country. The census of 1679 shows Rameau, ui.,i., 
but 515 persons, but these were a nation. The census R^^eau, ui., i., 
of 16S6 shows 885, excluding servants and soldiers at p- "• 
Port Royal. The total was about 1000. Between 1704-7 
three expeditions from Boston were fitted out to take 



6 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Port Roj'al, but all failed, though the attacking parties 

were very numerous and the Acadians counting every 

English Con- goul had but 1484 people. In 1710 the English came 
quest. '^ ^ . ® . 

again with 3400 men, and the garrison of 156 effective 

prrkmai,^'ii°c. defenders capitulated after some days' fighting. Then 
c, 109-149. Qg^T^-^Q ^]^g Treaty of Utrecht, definitely ceding Acadia to 
England. In the preceding attacks, Port Eoyal was the 
objective point, the outlying settlements escaping in- 
vasion. 

Before going on to relate the circumstances between 
the cession of Acadia to England in 1713 and the depor- 
tation in 1755, it will perhaps be in order to state the 
increase of population in that time. 
Population. It will be seen that the population 01^ the entire re- 

gion amounted to less than 1500 at the time of the Treaty 
of Utrecht. In 1737 the official census gives 7598 in 
Mines, Beaubassin and Port Loyal; the sparse settlements 
across the Bay, not counted. This means that they had 
Rameau id I ^^acli'^pled iu 30 ycars without immigration. The een- 
p-^^- sus of an English traveller, who visited Acadia in 1748 or 

Rameau, irf., I., 1749, 'estimates them at 12,500, but the emigration be- 
Hannay.c.H.R. camc SO marked soon after this, on account of the pro- 
Pa^rkman, M. & lo^ged English occupancy, that in 1754, notwithstanding 
Bo^rinot, p. 306: the large birth rate, there were but 9215 in the peninsula. 
^c^.T^Jiz^ Acadia was captured by Nicholson in 1710 and, by 

the treaty of Utrecht, three years later, ceded to Eng- 
land. The obscure wording of this treaty in the matter 
of the boundary between the peninsula and the rest of 
the country caused much trouble during the ensuing 
years. Article XI Y of the Treaty defines the situation 

of the Acadians: 

Crcatvof ^'it is expressly provided that in all the said places 

Utrccbt, 171*. I J i. 

and colonies to be yielded and restored by the Most 

Christian King in pursuance of this treaty, the subjects 
of the said King nu^y have liberty to remove themselves 
within a year to any other place, as they shall think fit, 
with all their movable effects. But those Avho are will- 
ing to remain here, and to be subjects to the kingdom 
of Great Britain, are to enjoy the free exercise of their 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 7 

religion according to the usage of the Church of Eome 

as far as the laws of Great Britain do allow the same." Rich, i., p. 74- 

In return for some kindness shown by the King of 
France for his Protestant subjects, Queen Anne wrote 
the following letter to Nicholson, still further lighten- 
ing the burden of the Acadians: 

"Whereas our good brother, the Most Christian Ouecn^Hnne 
King, hath, at our desire, released from imprisonment on 
board his galleys such of his subjects as were detained 
there on account of their professing the Protestant re- 
ligion, we, being willing to show by some mark of our 
favor towards his subjects how kind we take his com- 
pliance therein, have therefore thought fit hereby to sig- 
nify our will and jjleasure to you, that you permit such 
of them as have any lands or tenements in the places un- 
der our Government of Acadia and Newfoundland, that 
have been or are to be yielded to us by virtue of the late ^ 

treaty of peace and are willing to continue our subjects, 
to retain and enjoy their said lands and tenements with- 
out any molestation, as fully and freely as other our sub- 
jects do or may possess their lands or estates, or to sell 
the same, if they shall rather choose to remove elsewhere. 
And for so doing, this shall be your warrant. 
"By Her Majesty's command, 

"Dartmouth." R>ch., id., p. 47. 

This situation as defined by the treaty and letter c«rm$ of treaty, 
was clear. Tbe Acadians were to have the option of 

Rameau, C. F., 

staving or going. If thev chose to stay, they were to 11, p. 7. 

^ '^ *= ■ . . Parkman, M. & 

eniov the free exercise of their religion. The time limit w., i.,p. 95. 

" • Bounuot, p. 232. 

for decision was a year. The Acadians did not depart Richard i. p. si. 

'' '■ Parkman, H. C. 

during this year, and the reason is curious. About July, <--.p- 186-7. 
1713, they sent delegates to ascertain what terms they 
could obtain if they emigrated to French territory. The 
terms were unsatisfactory^, for the land at Cape Breton 
offered was poor; however, they stated their determina- 
tion to go in any case if forced to take an oath of alle- 
giance. Land at Prince Edward's Island was then of- 
fered them, aud they prepared to go, but the lieutenant- 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



Uetcb. 

Rich. p. 82. 

nicboison. 

Kich. I. p. 86. 



Parkraan, H. C 

C.,p. 1S8. 
R., p. 87. 



R. p. 91. 



Caulficld, 1715. 



Rich. I., p. 100. 

Doucettc, 1717. 



R., p. 105. 



R., p. 105, III. 
Roberts, p. 124. 



governor, Vetch, would not permit this, as he said, until 
the return of Nicholson. The bearers of the Queen's 
message arrived in Acadia about the same time with 
Nicholson, who promised to let the Acadians go within 
another year, but put off the actual moving until, as he 
said, he could refer it to the Queen. The Queen died 
in August, 1714. Eepresentations were made to the 
Lords of Trade, pointing out that the departure of the 
French would ruin the country. During this time the 
Acadians were awaiting the decision. In the Spring of 
1715 many, in this expectation, did not sow their lands. 
In the interim the Acadians were refused permission to 
leave in English ships, French ships were not allowed 
to enter the harbors, and when the people built vessels 
of their own and wished to send to Louisberg for rigging 
for them, this was refused by the Governor. They were 
also refused permission to obtain it in Boston. Differ- 
ent letters of Vetch to the Lords of Trade state that un- 
less orders were sent to prevent the departure of the 
Acadians, Nova Scotia would be stript and Cape Breton 
become a populous and well-stocked colony. There was 
another reason; the garrison was wholly dependent on 
the French for provisions, and if they went away the hand- 
ful of soldiers would soon be massacred by the Indians. 
Gov. Caulfield took office in 1715 and sent out agents 
to administer the oath. The Acadians refused the oath, 
stating that they were awaiting the decision promised by 
Nicholson. Caulfield was replaced in 1717 by Doucette, 
who severely enjoined the people to take the oath. The 
Acadians, despairing of the Nicholson decision, sent a 
common statement that they wished protection from the 
Indians in event of taking the oath, and this oath was 
to be that they would not take up arms against the King 
of France, England or their allies. This is the first ap- 
pearance of the famous contention of neutrality. Dou- 
cette tried to exact the unconditional oath, but in vain. 
He appealed to the priests, but they declined to inter- 
fere. Doucette had written to the Governor of Louis- 
berg complaining that the Acadians had not gone, and 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 9 

received a sharp one in return in which it was stated that 
Nicholson and his successors had made it impossible for 
the Acadians to depart with their goods by refusing them 
vessels or permission to get rigging for their own craft. 
In 1720, Gov. Phillips came to Annapolis to take charge. Phillips, 17J0. 
He ordered the Acadians to take the oath without re- 
serve or leave the province within four months, without 
transporting their effects. They accepted the terms, 
asking only an extension of time to gather the harvest. 
They wrote to the Governor of Louisberg asking help. Pa'rkman,' h. c. 
He wrote to Phillips asking to have the obstacles in the ' ^' "'^" 
way of the French departure removed. The Acadians p. 
set to work to make the road from Mines and Annapolis, 
since this w^as the only way of leaving the province from 
these places. Phillips became alarmed and ordered the 
road making stopped. He also told them not to leave 
their homes clandestinely or without leave. He blamed 
his failure to settle the affair on the clergy, whom he 
called "bigoted priests." On Dec. 20, 1720, the Lords r. i., p. 123. 
of Trade wrote to Phillips that the Acadians ought to be 
removed as soon as the promised forces should arrive, 
but in the meantime to be prudent and allow them free- 
dom of religion, which, as they said, would probably be 
accorded them if they chose to stay where they were. 
This is the first intimation of a plan of deportation. A ^■' p- "''• 
private letter written at this time by Craggs, Secretary 
of State to Phillips, is rather interesting at this point. 
This Craggs was afterwards disgraced and died on his 
way to the Tower, and of course his private letter does 
not show any design of the Government; but it is a 
strange thing that so many years before the expulsion, 
a man high in the government should outline the entire 
scheme as it was actually carried out, and should suggest 
such measures of dissimulation in the meantime as only 
too evidently appear in the documents of the time. 
Craggs tells the Governor "not to bother about justice 
or other baubles any more than ISTicholson or Vetch did; 
these things will not advance our interests." "Their de- 
parture (the Acadians) will doubtless increase the power 



lo The Acadians of Madawaska 

of France: this must not be; they must eventually be 
transferred to some place where mingling with our sub- 
jects they will soon forget their language, their religion 
and remembrance of the past, and become true English- 
men. For the moment, we are too weak to undertake 
this deportation — encourage them with any hopes you 
choose — provided you obtain the desired end, which is 
to prevent their departure." The course of Phillips dur- 
ing the next few years would indicate that he took these 
suggestions to heart. He continued things in the statu 
quo for two years, and returned to Europe, leaving Dou- 
cette to act as lieutenant-governor. He so acted until 
1725. During this time the matter of the oath was al- 
lowed to rest, and since the Indians of Maine were in 
•open rebellion, and. those of Xova Scotia likely to join 
them, nothing was done to irritate the Acadians who 
were their friends. They were left to themselves. After 
Uoucette in 1725 came Armstrong, a moody, ungovern- 
able man, who seems to have had trouble with everyone, 
even his own household. He began to act as if the coun- 
try were in a state of war. The Acadians who had had 
some experience with him previously in a subordinate ca- 
pacity dreaded his coming. In fact, some went away 
that year to Prince Edward's Island. All prepared for 
Hrmstrotifl, a general migration, and Armstrong fearing this, and 
taking a moment which he judged favorable, proposed 
Paricman, H. c. the oath. The Acadians asked for tbe insertion of a 

C, p. 200. ^ 

clause about not Ijearing arms against the King of 
France; and Armstrong states in his letter to the Lords 
of Trade that he inserted this in the margin of the 
French version. The English version was the otficial 
document. He states that he did this to get them over 
by degrees. He told them that there was no danger of 
their having to bear arms, for this was a privilege allowed 
only to his Majesty's Protestant subjects. All that the 
R. I., p. 138. Acadians had to do was to be obedient subjects. 
In this fashion, the oath was given to one fourth of 
the people. Most of Armstrong's envoys to other places 
came back unsuccessful. He sent one in particular, Eob- 



The Acadians of Madawaska. ii 

-ert Wroth, to Mines and Beaubassin. Wroth inserted 
the clause about bearing arms in tbe French version of 
the oath, omitting it in the official Eiiglisli one. The 
Governor decided that the oath was not valid as far as 
the Government was concerned, but that, nevertheless, 
the Acadians were Ijound Ijy this oatli. Armstrong was 
much chagrined at his failure to get the unreserved oath; 
strange to say, he blames Boston merchants for liis fail- r. i., p. mo. 
ure. The Lords of Trade did not take kindly to Arm- 
strong's manoeuvering, and sent Phillips back to Acadia. pbniips. 
Shortly after his arrival, Phillips wrote back that tlie winsiow jour- 
oath had been taken by all the people in Annapolis, and viii°,'p'.Vi2.' 
that the rest would soon follow. He succeeded in this 
by giving an oral promise to the French that they would 
not be called upon to bear arms against the French. This ^^(^''"*°o,"' ^" 
fact, which has sometimes been questioned, is stated later 
-on by Gov, Lawrence, and is conclusively shown by va- 
rious documents cited in Richard's "Acadia." The Aca-R i ,^7 
dians without written proof of their stand tried to safe- ^AJ^o' 'n.''^^s; 
guard themselves Ijy writing to the French Governor, ex- •'^^'='^"^"- 
l)laining the affair. Phillijjs retired to England in 1731, 
and the oath question fell into desuetude until the foun- 
dation of Halifax in 1749. The Acadians went back to r. i., p. 152. 
their fields and dwelt in peace. These twenty years were 
the most prosperous in their wliole history. Armstrong 
returned in 1731, but English authority was exerted only 
in the vicinity of the fort at Annapolis. The people gov- 
erned themselves. The only cause of dissatisfaction was 
the land, which had been sub-divided as families in- 
creased, until it was fearfully crowded and there were 
•endless differences about boundaries. The Government 
Mould give no new concessions. 

Armstrong killed himself in 1739, and was succeeded 
by Mascarene. This governor was severe in insisting on ^If"^^' 
non-intervention on the part of the clergy in matters 
political, but soon had things smoothed out and all satis- 
fied. The land question was bound to come up on ac- 
count of the discomfort of the people. One of the causes 
Avhy the Acadians could not occupy the lands outside 



12 The Acadiaxs of Madawaska. 

their original farms, was that these had been granted to 
proprietors in England. Just while this matter was 
most critical, war broke out between England and France. 
During this war, Acadia was four times invaded by the 
French, and Port Eoyal was for some time held by them ; 

Rich. I., p. 203. every means from flattery to threats was employed to 
gain over the Acadians; they were ordered to deliver up 
their arms or be given over to the mercies of the Indians, 
i°°p.^2'o5. '^ ' but would not do it. Finally the French retired. At 
this time the fortifications of Annapolis were repaired^ 
the Acadians very willingly doing nearly all the work. 
Mascarene states that they were most ready. He states 
that throughout this war they kept him informed of the 
French movements. July 2, 17-i-i, he wrote that the 
Acadians had no ways joined the enemy — had helped re- 

R. I., p. 207. pair the works the day before the attack. In December, 

R. I., p. 208. 1744, he wrote: ''To the succor received from the Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts and our French inhabitants re- 
fusing to take up arms against us, we owe our preserva- 

R. I., p. 208. tion." In 1747, he wrote: "Though the enemy brought 
near 2000 men in arms in the midst of them, and used 
all means of cajoling them and threatening them to take 
up arms, having brought spare ones to that end, they 

History of N. s. qq-^jI^ jjq^ prcvail upon above 20 to join them." Murdock 
states: "Although there were always a portion of the 
inhabitants of Beaubassin (on the isthmus) positively 
disaffected to English rule, in the other settlements there 
were very few persons who were even suspected of will- 
ingly aiding the invasion, and Duvivier received as little 
support from the Acadians after crossing the Avon as 
Prince Charles Stuart in the next year after crossing the 

R, I., p. 2.1. Tweed." 

The number 20 enumerated in Mascarene's letter 
tallies with the French reports; twelve of these were ar- 
rested on denunciations made by the Acadians; this not 
for taking up arms, but advising and assisting the French 
invaders or neglecting to inform the English. This in a 
6ev. $hiri«v*$ ^°^^^ years' war with four invasions. Shirley, the Gov- 
Pian. ernor of Massachusetts, was no friend to the Acadians. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 13 

He devised a plan to plant Protestant colonists among Park"ianMont- 

J- J^ ° calm & Wolfe 

them, takino; awav the marsh lands and giviuof bribes to p^-r- ^/J. 

^ c> K, 00 nouriuot, p. 220 

perverts. This plan reached the ears of the Acadians as ^'\^- ^^g 
a scheme for their expulsion, alarming them greatly, and 
the}' consurlted Mascareue. Aug. 15, 1746, Shirley came 
forward with another plan of removing the "Rom'ish 
priests" and introducing Protestant English schools and 
French Protestant ministers. This was after the Aca- 
dians had remained proof against French wiles during 
the war, and had aided in building Annapolis fort. Nov. 
21, Shirley informed the Duke of Newcastle that th«> 
Acadians were alarmed, saying that Admiral Knowles 
thinks "that it will be necessarv to drive all the Acadians 

" Parkman, M. & 

out of Acadia.'" After going over the situation, he stated w. \.,p.gs- 

'=■ '=' ' Murdock, H. N. 

that driving out the Acadians was not in his opin- s. 11., p. 129- 
ion the plan, since it would strengthen the enemy. This ^•' p- ^^2°-^ 
seemed to be the only deterrent. It had been the same 
with Craggs. He concludes the letter submitting whether 
it was better to drive them out to strengthen the French, 
or retain them and treat them as subjects. 

Newcastle replied May 30, 1747, advising the quiet- 
ing of the Acadian apprehensions of expulsion, saying 
that it was the King's desire to continue them in their 
fidelity and the free exercise of their religion. Before 
receiving this replv, Shirley wrote advising the placing 
of English colonists at Beaubassin and transplanting the 
Acadians to New England, distributing them among the 
four governments there. After receiving the reply, he 
wrote stating that he had suspended the King's plan to 
give freedom of religion, Ijut made such declaration as 
would quiet the minds of the Acadians. Mascarene did 
not relish Shirley's interference. He knew its effect on 
the Acadians. February, 1747, the French attacked 
Grand Pre. The Acadians had warned the English gar- r j p ^27. 
risen, but were unheeded. The French occupied Grand 
Pre and sent out proclamations stating that the Acadians T>'«nf|[^Tn^«iou, 
were now French subjects. This did not help the 
French, for the Acadians went to Mascarene with the 
proclamations and told him all aliout it. The French 



14 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

then made proclamation that the Acadians were released 
from their oath to the English, and that it had been sO' 
decided by the Canadian anthorities and the Bishop of 
Quebec. 

R. I., p. 229. This proclamation was also without effect, as Shir- 

ley's letter of June 8 to Xewcastle shows. Peace was 
concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle October, 1748. Things 
went back to the statu quo. The foundation of Halifax 
was decided upon March, 1749, and realized June 27 fol- 
i:ft«I!!J"!l'h lo"^ving-, with Edward Cornwallis as governor. A few 
days later the Acadians sent delegates with their respects 
to the Governor, who gave out a proclamation enjoining 
an unconditional oath, telling the delegates to publish 

Bourinot, p. 232. it and return. This they did July 29. They asked for 
the insertion of the clause about not taking up arms 
against the French, and were refused, as also permission 
to leave the country with their goods. Some weeks later 
the deputies came with a letter signed by one thousand 
persons, asking that the Phillips' oath might be renewed, 
and recounting their fidelity in the last war. Cornwallis 
r'°p!145.' replied that the Phillips' oath had no such reservation 
as they claimed, and told them they must obey. He 
told them they could leave without their effects. Memo- 
rials and deputations succeeded one another, all amount- 
ing to nothing. French intrigue began again, and La 
Corne was sent to occupy Beaubassin. During the Fall 
of 1749 the English were too busy at Halifax to attend 
■' ^' ^^''' to anything else. March, 1750, Cornwallis wrote to Bed- 
ford that he proposed deferring the oath until the end 
of the Beaubassin affair, and after that to exact a per- 
emptory answer. He was told not to exact the oath, but 
to treat the Acadians kindly and to wean their minds 
from the design of leaving the country. Cornwallis then 
told the Acadians to sow seed and await the government 
reply. They obeyed, but not wishiilg to sow the land 
for the benefit of strangers if they could help it, went 
Hngio-Taencb ^° ^^^^ Governor seeking some assurance. They received 
uTM-sfe" none. He refused them passports and insisted on keep- 

Bourinot, p. 229. ing tliiugs as they were. The eight years from 1748 to 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 15 

1756 were in America a series of hostilities yearly grow- 
ing more violent. During all this time the attempts of 
the French to gain over the Acadians were incessant. 
Cornwallis's proclamation of an unconditional oath be- 
came a pretext for secret hostilities and finally open war. 
The French used the savages to strike the English dur- 
ing a time of peace. Le Loutre began to make trouble 
at Beausejour, setting the Indians to burn the Acadian 
houses at Beaubassin and so force the inhabitants to take 
refuge on the French side of the line. For this thing 
Le Loutre was severely reproved by the Bishop of Que- I'J^^^^J- Pp ^.^j 
bee. During the latter half of the year 1749 continued 
hostilities went on on the isthmus near the disputed 
frontier. 

In November, 1753, a treaty of peace was arranged 
between Cornwallis and the Mic-Macs. This peace was Rich, i., p. 308. 
very short. It was broken by the English themselves. 
Cornwallis wished to begin a war of extermination against 
the Indians, but was prevented by the Lords of Trade. 
Another treaty of peace was negotiated, but quickly 
broken. During this time (from 1750-52) the Acadians 
were tranquilly awaiting the reply promised by Cornwallis. 
Hopson succeeded Cornwallis in 1752. On Dec. 10, 1753, Ropson, 17s:. 
Hopson wrote to the Lords of Trade that application of 
the oath was difficult, if not impossible, and advised de- 
lay. He states that the Acadians are so useful that it 
is impossible to replace them. He sent letters to the dif- r. i., p. 321. 
ferent commanders, advising kind measures and putting 
the Acadians on the same footing as other English sub- 
jects. 

July 23, 1753, he wrote to the Lords of Trade that 
the Acadians were ready for unconditional submission, and 
only refrained from fear of the French and Indians, who 
had it in their power to make existence intolerable. The 
Acadians, who had crossed to French territory in 1748, 
asked to return under the old conditions, which was 
granted, except for the oath which the Governor could 
not change. Hopson's administration ended with this 
year. He was succeeded by Lawrence, first for a time. 



i6 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



R. I., p. 350, 



Eawrcnce. and later as the Governor. Dec. 5, 1T53, Lawrence wrote 
R. I., p. 345- that the Acadians were quiet in political matters, but 
were disagreeing among themselves. They feared that 
the oath would be forced on them. The land famine 
was becoming intolerable. This letter perplexed the 
Lords of Trade, who ^varned Lawrence against any action 
likely to start the Acadians migrating. On the other 
hand, he was told to try and work them into taking the 
oath of allegiance. 

On Aug. 1, 1T54, Lawrence wrote to the Lords of 
Trade, alleging disturbance, assistance to the French, and 
blaming the j)riests for it. He concludes the letter: 
"As they possess the best and largest tracts of land 
in this Province, it cannot be settled with any effect while 
they remain in this situation, and I would be very far 
from attempting such a step without Your Lordships' 
approbation, yet I cannot help being of the opinion that 
it would be much better, if they refuse the oath, that 
they were away." 

In this letter Lawrence made accusations about the 
Acadians. One of them is the intercourse with the 
French and selling provisions to them. The extent of 
this was much exaggerated; it was by no means a com- 
mon practice of the people, who themselves made many 
attempts to have it stopped, and it had gone on under 
preceding governors without being interpreted as against 
fidelity. 

The iVcadians in IT-ii did police duty to stop this 
Rich. I., p, 358. traffic. It amounted to nothing more or less than smug- 
gling. He also stated that the Acadians had not been 
near the English markets for a long time, but he omitted 
stating that it was some time since the disposition of the 
last crop, that the time for gathering the next crop had 
not come, and naturally they had no reason for going to 
the markets. There is no existing case of the Acadians 
trading with the French, mentioned in the annals of this 
time, but there is more than one case of the English 
merchants themselves being engaged in this traffic. There 
was one other chara-e against the Acadians: that was 



R. I., p. 355- 



£awrence'$ 
Cbarses. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 17 

against the 300 who had gone to Beaiisejour, presumably 
to repair dykes. This work had to be done by many at 
a certain time, and done quickly. They asked Law- 
rence's permission to go and were refused. They went. 
Probably some went for good, but the greater number 
must have gone with the idea of returning, since they 
left their families behind. In any case the accusation is 
not one of importance. The Lords of Trade, in answer Rich, i., p. 364. 
to Lawrence's letter, ordered delay and investigation of 
the dyke matter. The men who went away were con- 
demned to forfeit their lands if they refused to take the 
unconditional oath. On Aug. 4, after his first letter had Rich, i., p. 367. 
been sent, he dispatched word to the commanders not to 
bargain with the Acadians for anything, but to take what 
they wanted, and exercise military severity against any 
delinquents to the orders. 

The Acadians obeyed. The orders were carried out Rich, i., p. 369. 
immediatel)', except at Pigiguit, where they were de- 
layed. This delay was much remarked by the com- 
mander, Murray. 

On May 27, 1755, Lawrence learned that three r. i., p. 372. 
Frenchmen were among the Acadians seeking to gain 
them over, and he made proclamation that any who lis- 
tened to them would be treated with military severity. 

On the strength of a certain letter supposed to have 
been intercepted and indicating a French descent. Law- w."'i.°'p. 248, 
rence communicated with Shirley, who lent 2000 New ^*' 
England troops for an expedition to dislodge the French. 
On June 2, 1755, thirty-three vessels under Monckton, ^'"'fj's'i^" '* 
Winslow and Scott arrived at Fort Lawrence. At this Rgi^g^ts p ij6, 
time France and England were ostensibly at peace. '^^ 
Beausejour was invested and June 16 was captured, captured!" 
Three hundred Acadians were found there under arms. 
It has been said that they induced the French to de- 
clare that they had taken up arms only under pain of r. i., p ,87. 
death. Monckton, in his letter of June 16, while stating \C\Ds*°*jour., 
that they were found in arms, states that , they were in Bounnot, p. 230] 
arms under pain of death, implies no subterfuge, and Rich." 11., p. e. 
pardons them. 



Rich. II. 

27- 



i8 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Preparations for On June 6, 1755, 100 men had been sent by Law- 

Deportation. ' r. 1 P 1 1 

rence, under pretence of a nsnmg frolic, to disarm the 
inhabitants of Mines district. This was done. The 
people sent a petition to the Governor, protesting their 
fidelity and asking to keep their arms for fear of the In- 
dians. Lawrence considered this petition as impudent; 
the people sent another still more humble, and asking an 
interview. They came July 3, and were ordered to take 
'^' the oath of allegiance. They asked to retire home to 
consider the matter; this was refused. They were told 
that no delay or exemption would be granted, and that 
their reply must be ready by 10 o'clock the next morning. 
At this the Acadians declared that they could not take 
the oath without consulting their people. They were 
told that otherwise they would be treated as French sub- 
jects and deported, and were ordered to withdraw. They 
were called in again and informed that they were to be 
treated as Popish Eecusants, and were imprisoned. On 

Rich. II., p, 29. Jnne 28, 1755, Lawrence wrote to the Lords of Trade 
that the Acadians were delivering up their arms. He 
stated that they were to be driven out of the country. 
But it was no part of his plan to drive them across the 
frontier. He entered into consultation with Boscawin, 
and it was decided that the inhabitants must take the 
oath or quit the country. Soon after, according to an 

Rich II , p. 36. exhaustive plan of the settlements prepared long before 

^^p%t°' ^'^■' ^J a Judge Morris, arrangements were made to plant 
troops in the different villages secretly. Meanwhile a 
rumor was circulated by the authorities that the inhab- 
itants were to be sent to Canada, so that none would try 

Rich. II., p. 45. to escape. July 18, Lawrence let the Lords of Trade 
know of his plan in a veiled way, insinuating a removal 
to France. On July 25, delegates from all Acadia met at 
Halifax, but the conference came to no satisfactory re- 
sult. This was evident, because the matter had long ago 
been decided in the Governor's mind. He wished that 

Rich. II., p. 57. the deportation should take place before the Lords of 
Trade could head it off, in a reply to his letter of June 28. 
He knew that if the fact were once accomplished, it would 



p. 97, 107, 134, 
142. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 19 

be difficult for them to change it and they would ac- 
quiesce. It fell out as he had forseen. 

On July 31, Lawrence wrote to Monekton arranging Rich. 11., p. ,8. 
details of the expulsion and giving precise directions 
about the disposal of the Acadian cattle and flocks which 
were many and valuable. The different commanders on 
the peninsula received similar directions, and it now only 
remained for him to carry out his carefully matured 
plans. Stringent orders were given to prevent the people ^.^^j jo^^^j 
from escaping, and in case of opposition, the rule was "life 
for life from the nearest neighbor." In order to show 
how the business was regarded by other people, it may be 
well to quote a letter written by the American Com- 
mander Winslow some time before the public decision of 
the deportation. It shows quite well where the direct re- 
sponsibility for the deportation lies, and also the animus 
of those who had charge of it. 

"We are now hatching the great and noble project of r u^ p ^^ 
banishing the French Neutrals from this province; they *^°j^°fp^PYi^™*°^> 
have ever been our secret enemies, and have encouraged ^°'^® '■' p- 
our Indians to cut our throats. If we can accomplish 
this expulsion it will have been one of the greatest deeds 
the English in America have ever achieved, for among 
other considerations the part of the country which they 
occupy is one of the best soils in the world, and in that 
event, we might place some good farmers on their home- 
steads." 

On July 31, Lawrence announced the deportation to 
the Lords of Trade, stating that the Acadians "are the 
most inveterate enemies of our religion" and could not 
safely be sent to Canada; that vessels had been hired to 
convey them to the colonies and disperse them from 
Georgia to New England. From all the documents ex- j^ n p g 
tant, it is clearly evident that this action of the Governor 
was taken entirely without the sanction and even against ''"**"^Jmj *"** 
the will of the government. Every letter from the Lords 6«''<'''""<"*' 
of Trade had counselled moderation and delay. But ^''^^mN^ s., p. 
Lawrence did not write his letter of July 31 until his ^°^"^^^P■ ^^s . 
plans were matured, and any letter from England would p- ^^^- 



20 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

arrive too late to head off the expulsion. A letter from 
the Lords of Trade, dated Aug. 15, shows their alarm at 
the measures he had indicated and forbade any such ac- 
tion, but whether this letter came late or was received 
and disregarded is not certainly known. At all events, 
Lawrence did not reply to the Aug. 15 letter until Xov. 
20, when a state of war practically existed, and in tlie 
pressure of greater matters small ones were forgotten or 
passed over. But his conduct in this matter and others was 
to be examined into just before his sudden death. As 
has been stated before, the Acadians were scattered over 
the peninsula of Nova Scotia and also along the shores of 
the Bay of Fundy, Many of them had in the course of 
time taken up residence in Prince Edward Island and 
different places of the mainland north of Nova Scotia. 
From the time Acadia came into English hands this emi- 
gration had been going on quite constantly. After 1748 
it grew very large, so that a census made in that year 
indicates the population as 12,500, and six years after 
there were but 9215 in the peninsula. At this time only 
the peninsula was in English hands; France held the rest 
of Canada and the huge fortress of Louisberg near by. 

Roberts, p. 126. The isthmus uniting the peninsula to the rest of Canada 
was the virtual boundary and the subject of rival claims. 
The people of Beaubassin, Beausejour and other places on 
this isthmus were in a very disturbed state throughout 
the hostilities of those years. But the great centres of 
population on the peninsula itself, including the most 
prosperous and peaceful of the Acadian people, were little 
affected "by these migrations and became the direct prey 
of the deporters. This explains the issue of the carefully 
laid plans of Lawrence. 
Gathering the On Sept. 12, 1755, the machinery of the movement 

"" *' was set in motion. The people had already been disarmed ; 

Rich. II., p. log. now detachments were sent to the different villages to 
summon them under pretext of an important announce- 
ment. What was left of the population of Beaubassin, 
after the French retreat following the capture of Beause- 

C&s&r Pel p -1 • • 1 

128. ■' ■ jour, listened to the proclamation with suspicion, and a 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 21 

good number took to the woods. At Annapolis, in the 
h^ame way, the people who were always more or less on the 
alert, started for the forest without delay, but in the 
Mines district both the character of the people and the 
extra care of the English contributed to a complete sur- 
prise. 

For convenience it will be well to distinguish three D^/p"o*r',S,o'J. 
periods in the deportation: first the peninsula expulsion 
of 1755; second, the one which took place in 1758, after 
the final fall of Louisberg, and lastly, the fate of those 
who eluded the pursuers and took refuge inland, or emi- min$iow, 
grating from various places in the colonies whither they 
had been sent, wandered back to Nova Scotia. The sta- "X5crtaW 
tistics of the expulsion are far from complete or satis- ^.^^,^^ ^^^^^ 
factory. Practically the only exact and detailed account p^^^z, 87, 160, 
is contained in the journal of Winslow; the accounts f or H^n°ay,^ c- h. 
the other places have been laboriously worked out by ^i;^^^^^^','/-^^^.; 
Casgrain and Eameau. Hence the estimates of the first F^efn. u. s., 
deportation vary largely from GOOO to 7500, though some Rubens, p. .30. 
have put the number much higher. However, since re- p™*^"^ (V 7),' 
liable data show that in 1754 there were little more than Bourinot'''p". 236. 

. , . , , T • Rich. II., p. 122. 

9000 m the peninsula it is easy to come to a conclusion, 
ilameau and Casgrain, two very respectable authorities 
on the subject, state that in 1755, 6000 were exported. 
Bancroft would make them 7000 in number. AVhile it 
is not to the purpose to paint any picture of the trouble 
caused to the exiles, it is pertinent to state the fact that 
in the nature of the case their lot was most wretched. 
The stroke came as a surprise: things were so arranged 
that they could not turn anything into money, and even if 
it had been permitted buyers would have been hard to 
find. The prosperity of these people consisted in things 
that could not be taken off easily, or at all, lands, houses, 
live stock. They were hurried on board small vessels 
with military haste and pitilessness, carrying what they 
could snatch at the time. The ships were so crowded 
that carrying much was out of the question. They were 
a people unaccustomed to leave home and entirely un- 
prepared for such a journey. It would have been hard 



22 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

to find a collection of individuals on whom such a fate 

would have fallen with more crushing effect. In order 

to give some idea of the prosperity of the Acadians in 

1755, it will be in order to state that in the District of 

Rameau, F. aux Mincs 4000 pcoplc wcrc rcuioved, -iOO houses and 500 

c, i.,p. 45- i,^j.^^ burnt, 2000 steers, 3000 cows, 5000 calves, 600 

horses, 12,000 sheep and 800 pigs were confiscated. There 

had been little exchange of money among the Acadians, 

they had little use for it, but at this time money was the 

only thing that would have made their lot supportable. 

Destination, The number who landed at different ports of the colonies 

is only approximately known. With the exception of 

Rich. II., p. 230, -r> i- 1 1 r.rv 

249,253. J^oston, where nearly 2000 were put ashore, only a small 

Rameau, F. aux t p ^ 'J 

c, I. ,p.57cn), number were left at other Northern ports. Connecticut 

139 (.n), 140, • -, o 

^'45(n). ^ received for its share 300: New York 200. The re- 

Casgram, Pel., 

p 163. mainder were distributed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

Rich. II., p. 240. -^ J.J 

Georgia and the Carolinas. These last numbered in 

some two or three places some 4000. The 1500 who were 

disembarked in South Carolina were first distributed in 

the settlements, but finally obtained two old ships, and 

after many vicissitudes and much reduced in number 

reached the mouth of the St. John, and finally Nova 

Scotia, where they were imprisoned. It is stated that 

many of the descendents of the Acadians remain in South 

s Carolina at the present day. A few at first drifted to 

Louisiana, but were reinforced by some who had been 

wind-driven to San Domingo and Guinea. Others came 

from New England and Canada. Today their descendents 

in Louisiana number more than 50,000. 

Hcadia after The act of deportation by no means ceased with the 

Deportation, year 1755. After that first expulsion there still remained 

„. , „ on the river St. John, the Gulf shores and in Prince 

Rich. II., p. 270. ' 

Bancroft II., p. Edward Island 10,000 Acadians. About 1500 of these 
^p"M6(n2i)*^'' ^eiit to Quebec by the St. Lawrence between 1756 and 
1758; some hundreds ascended the St. John River in 1759 
and 1760 and settled in the district of Three Eivers, 
where their descendents form a compact settlement to- 
day. Disease played havoc with these travellers. Hence 
I7S8. there remained in 1758 about 8000 in the maritime 



The Acadians of Madawaska, 23 

provinces, nearly 5500 of these in Prince Edward Island. 

The importance of this settlement began in 17-19, when 

Beansejour was founded. When Le Loutre burned the 

houses of the isthmus and drove the people across the 

line they went to Prince Edward Island and settled there. 

Then after 1755 this settlement was much increased by 

other fugitives. Here they remained at peace while 

France held that part of the country. After the capture 

of Louisberg Boscawin arranged the deportation of all D^p^rt^/ioif, 

these people on the pretext that they were fugitives from "**• 

Nova Scotia. The exact number deported at this time, ^^^^^^^^ ^^ 

as in 1755, is not knov^^n. It ranges from 3000 ^o^'^^^^^^-^p^^^^^*' 

4000. Some v^ere sent to England, where half of them ^^'^*^"'(n^j '^'• 

died from different causes; others were left in France, at 

St. Malo, Boulogne and other ports, some went to the 

Island of Jersey, where Le Loutre looked after them. 

A part never arrived in Europe at all because the ships 

on which they were embarked were rotten hulks and went 

down at sea. 

At the peace of 1763, the Acadians found themselves 
pretty well scattered. Most of the Mines and Port Eoyal 
people had been sent to the Atlantic coast colonies, 
though some went as far as Cuba. All the exiles in the '^^'"j,"/* ^*' 
American colonies who were able made an attempt to get 
hack to Acadia. About two hundred families carried this Rich. 11., p. 325. 
plan into effect; 800 started from Boston in 1766 to 
walk back through the woods of Maine; some who had 
gone to South Carolina sailed back in two old vessels. 
These made a rendezvous at the Eiver St. John, and from 
there they started out again for Nova Scotia, where the 
m.ost hard}^ of them arrived after months of privation. 
They were imprisoned at Halifax, and after the peninsula 
was well stocked with Englishmen they were permitted 
to take possession of certain wild and arid coasts. This 
is the origin of the present colony of St. Mary's Bay near $t. mai-v's Bay 
Cape Sable. Strange to say, after all the proscriptions 
and violence certain families seem to have eluded all 
pursuit and remained in Nova Scotia all the time and 



24 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

formed little communities here and there. The number 
of these was of course small. 

It has been thought best, for the sake of clearness, to 

practically finish up the story of the Acadians of Nova 

Scotia before saying much of those who either escaped 

from the proscription of 1755, or that of 1758, or who 

wandering back to Acadia from the South, found homes 

along the way, went to Canada, or took up the lot of the 

l^ioneers of Madawaska. 

D«rortatieS! ^0 sum the whole matter up, at the year 1755, there 

were in Acadia, on the peninsula, the shores of the Bay 

of Fundy and Prince Edward Island at least 18,000 

Rich. II. p. 338, Acadians. About 6500 were sent to different ports of 

^ii^^^'aS ^■' the Atlantic colonies; 700 at one time or another took 

^c",^n.'.p;66!''i'efuge in what is now New Brunswick; 500 or 600 re- 

Parkman,V.^& nialued iu Nova Scotia with the Indians; 1500 were re- 

w. I., p. 293. ggj-^^ iTom the colonies to England; 4000 sent direct to 

Europe in 1758. Of this number, 600 died in England, 

400 went down in shipwreck, 900 died in passage, 1500 

perished in colonies; 4500 disappeared without leaving 

much sign, of old age, misery and hardship. 

The St. John River. 

Fiocrst. 3obn. It has been pointed out that a large number of the 

Acadians living outside the peninsula of Nova Scotia 
escaped the deportation of 1755, remaining in their re- 
treats or making their way to more remote places. Some 
of these fugitives fell under the proscription of 1758 and 
were taken to England, but others, for example, those who 
took refuge on the River St. John, went through differ- 
Hncient Colony, ent experiences. One of the retreats, and perhaps the 
^. , „ most frequented of the exiled Acadians, was the River St. 

Kjch. 11., p. 255, ^ ' 

279. 305, 324, John. The colony in early times seems to have received 
Ganong in c. H. jiQ other name than that derived from the river. This 

K., p. 74. 

2" ■ colony, though so small that it is hardly thought worthy 

Robw's"' p! "9", 0^ being included in many of the censuses, was very 
Rameau, F. c: ancient. In fact, it was one of the first places known to 

I., p. 145 (n). .j-j^g French settlers of Poutrincourt's group. A circum- 
stantial account of it is found in the Denys narrative. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 25 

History centres about the mouth of the river where stood 
the fort attacked by D'Aulnay while LaTour was absent 
and the place defended by his wife; and the ancient 
seigneurie of Jemseg or Jemsek, later called the parish of 
Ekouipak, some forty leagues from the river mouth. 
This part of the country was conceded as a seigneurie to 
the Damour family, who were already installed there in 
1686. In 1693, there were 21 inhabitants; in 1698, 50; 
in 1739, 116. As regards the establishment at the mouth 
of the river, Casgrain writes : — 

"Some of D'Aulnay's colonists, attracted as LaTour had been, by see appendix i. 
the advantages of the place as a harbor, established themselves 
there. They formed in 1755 a little colony protected by the fort 
Menangoueche, where the government of Canada kept a garrison. 
In consequence of the devastations of 1755, the little colony was 
destroyed or dispersed." 

Mitchel's map of 1755 indicates Jemsek some leagues 
up the river on the borders of a lake, and a little to the * 

^ C-asg. Pel. p. 162, 

East on the same borders is a placed marked 165. 

■^ Rameau, F. aux 

"Acadian village." Concerning this village, the c. i., p. ^3 

O o- <-' ' (nio), 145. 

boundary statement presented to the King of 
the ^Netherlands says: "The remote situation of 
an Acadian village, which as first laid down in 
Mitchel's map, was at first near the East branch of the 
St. John, near the Lake Frangaise, or Grand Lake, pre- 
served its inhabitants from being transported and dis- 
persed with the rest of the original French inhabitants of 
Acadia." 

Hither came some fugitives immediately after the „ ^ 

° -^ . . Rendcvous en St. 

deportation. One of the vessels of the deportation sail- jobn, 1756-58. 
ing from Port Royal, was captured by the Acadians on 
board and beached in the Eiver St. John. There were 226 
■people on board this ship. Their story may be read in 
Casgrain (Pel. p. I60). In 1756, some of those deported 
to South Carolina, arrived at the Eiver St. John in two 
small vessels. The number is put as 900. Other fugi- 
tives came in from time to time, until there were at one 
time from 1200 to 1400 Acadians gathered here. A 
memoir of De Vaudreuil states that food became scarce 
and that the people were forced to migrate. A large 



26 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

number went to Quebec. Some went up the river and 

continued on to Three Eivers. Others became pirates 

and harassed British commerce. Those who remained 

mfiicwon^i8«. ^^^^ surprised in 1758 by a part)' under Monckton and 

Casg. Pel., p. <ii'i^6n Up the river. Some may have lingered in the 

Raymond in c. woods in the viciuity, but when the party of 800 arrived 

R^ertsip.iSo! from Boston in 1766, through the Maine woods, it is not 

stated that they met any of their brethren, though it is 

stated that at Peticodiac they came upon certain hunters 

whom they recognized as Acadians. However, it is worth 

while stating that both Eameau and Casgrain incline to 

the view that this Boston party halted, not at the 

mouth of the St. John, but rather in the vicinity of Fred- 

erickton, in the village of St. Anne. 

expelled bv It is pretty well settled that the larger number who 

remained in Xew Brunswick went up the river and some 

$t. Hnne, 1759. ^^iigg above the site of Frederickton founded the village 

_ , . „ of St. Anne. This village was attacked early in the year 

Raymond in C. ° j j 

H. R., p 2S1. 1759 \)-y a party of Xew England Eangers under Hazen; 
6 women and children were killed and 23 prisoners were 
taken. The village was burned. A local historian, by 
name Perley, states that in 1762, his grandfather with 
an exploring party found "the devastated settlements of 
the French and the blackened remains of their buildings 
which had been mercilessly burned." In 1761, Governor 
Bulkley reported that there were 40 Acadians at this 
place who had not made submission. They were ordered 
to leave without even gathering their crops. Again, in 

BuSml -^^^^' ^^ilkley directed all these people in the vicinity, 
except 6 families, to be chosen by the priest. Father 

Raymond in c. Bailh% to rcmovc. A letter written by this Fr. Bailly 
H^R , p. 280, f j.Qj^^ Ekouipahan to Bishop Briand, June 20, 1768, states 

Casg. Pel., p. j.j^^^ there were 11 Acadian families living near this place. 
These people were nomadic, hunting and fishing. These 
statements have been grouped together because they are 
somewhat contradictory. It is strange that the fugitives 
of ]\Ionckton's attack in 1758 could have gone to Fred- 
erickton and by 1759 have built a village and cleared 
lands to such an extent that in 1762 the ruins would be 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 27 

much in evidence after Hazem's attack. However, since 
the land was not densely wooded near the river bank and 
the Acadians were expert woodsmen, they may have ac- 
complished this in the time given. According to the ac- 
count the settlement of St. Anne must have been in 1759 
one of some growth and importance. Not only this, but 
some authorities state that the village flourished up to 
the close of the American Revolution. If this be true, 
they must have returned to the site of the burned village 
after 1762 and rebuilt, or else built elsewhere near by 
and called the second village St. Anne, and meanwhile 
have disobeyed the commands of Bulkley and eluded any 
attempts to dislodge them. There were even some 
Acadians at the mouth of the St. John in 1769, for they Raymond, p. 
were employed by the founders of that place in diking a 
large marsh near the present city. Of course, New 
Brunswick was practically untenanted except by Acadians 
and Indians up to the close of the Revolution, if one ex- 
cepts a few small settlements by English. They M^ere 
nomadic and accustomed to living in the woods, hence it 
would be hard to keep them out except by a garrison 
maintaining practical war all the time. 

The Acadian settlement on the Kennebecasis seems 
to have remained in existence up to 1788, at least ^^^^^^^^^ .^ ^ 
at that date certain settlers emigrated thence fur- h. r., p. 2S3. 
ther inland. All this goes to show that the Acadians 
haunted the interior of New Brunswick well up to the 
year 1783 or after. But hunted as they were from place 
to place, their settlements for the most part can have 
been little better than encampments, and when the 
fugitives went farther inland hardly any vestiges of occu- 
pation remained. 

The Acadian settlement on the Kennebecasis not far cower $t. 3obn. 
from the fief of Jemsek seems to have rested undisturbed Raymondc. h. 

K., p. 2S3. 

up to the year 1788 or after. All this goes to show that Rameau, f. aux 
the fugitive Acadians haunted the lower St. John well up d'.', p. 178. ' 
to 1783. Rameau and Casgrain mention Fredericton as 
the main depot of the N. B. Acadians after 1755, making 
the pilgrimage of 1766 from Boston arrive there instead 



2 8 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

of lower down near the river mouth. In connection with 
the Acadian residence in this district, it may be well to 
quote the letter of Fr. Bailly, noted above, to show how 
the Acadians employed themselves while here : 

See appendix 2. " There are eleven Acadians families on the outskirts of the 

village, the same ones whom Your Lordship kindly confirmed at 
Saint Anne. The Acadians who have remained among the English 
are still very fervent; their only fault is a great \vrongheadedness> 
either on the subject of each remaining in his own district and being 
unwilling to unite with the rest ; or in the matter of land which they 
want to hold under the old time conditions, responsible to the king 
alone. This is the reproach of the English who detest them. The 
government is not willing to give them land on this condition, yet 
exacts from them an oath of fidelity. It is a hard task to attend 
to them, for they live in districts apart from one another, during the 
summer on the seashore fishing, and in the winter in the woods 
hunting." 

What provincial enactments and divers military sal- 
lies, from 1758-1783, failed to accomplish was finally 
brought about by another means. The end of the Kevo- 
lution found the lot of the Tories in the new republic far 
from pleasant; several of them were hanged, and others 
shot. After the treaty of Paris they came in large num- 
bers over the line into New Brunswick. The English 
government owed many obligations to these people, who, 
whatever their faults, had deserved well of the mother 
country. The government fulfilled these obligations by- 
giving the Loyalists and disbanded soldiers large grants in 
New Brunswick. The Loyalists found Acadians on these 
grants. The English government, though it seems to have 
disapproved of the cruelties of Hazen, did not wish to in- 
terrupt the English settlements along the lower St. John 
by a French settlement at Fredericton; the Acadians 
were again ordered to remove. These orders the Loyal- 
ists ably seconded, as may be seen from Casgrain: 

See appendix 3. " The establishment at the River St. John became a living hell for 
the Acadians who held to their lands. Some of them went away to 
join their dispossessed brethren who had founded the Madawaska 
colony." 

There seems to be some warrant for this strong language; 
at all events the Loyalists speedily made the region of 
the lower St. John as uncomfortable as the Americans 
had made the United States for them, so that the Aca- 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 29 

dians were willing to abandon their farms and improve- *-asgrain p. 239, 
ments and start out into the wilderness again. This was emigration to 
between 1783-5. The Acadian current was finally set in •"aoamaska. 
the direction of Madawaska. Casgrain and Eameau, in 
various places, insinuate without references that parties 
of the Acadians had gone to Madawaska before this time- 
shortly after the events of 1755, in fact. An account 
given in the Maine Superintendent of Schools' report for 
1897 speaks of the French as passing above Grand Falls 
and settling in the valley of the upper St. John in 175G. 
Mr. Stetson states that this account is derived from Aca- 
dian traditions. Whatever may be the foundation for 
these statements, the first authenticated account is that 
in 1785 or 6, the Acadian vanguard, composed of about 
20 families, forced out of the Fredericton region by the 
Loyalists, determined to be secure from further inter- 
ference, went far up the St. John, past the site of mod- See appendix 3. 
ern Woodstock, carried around the great falls of the St. 
John near the boundary line between the United States 
and Xew Brunswick, and entered into the long, narrow, 
rich valley of the upper St. John. 

" In 1784 the expatriated of 1755 located at the River St. John were Caseraia Pel 
anew dispossessed in favor of American loyaliats and disbanded „ 2,„ ' 
soldiers. These unfortunate families powerless against force could do 
nothing but betake themselves to the forests. They ascended the 
River St. John, thirty leagues from any habitation, and axe in hand 
opened up the plains of Madawaska." 



Madawaska. 

The Eiver St. John, above Grand Falls, checked by Uaiiev of Upper 
massive rock formations, spreads out and becomes much ^'- 3«»'"- 
wider than it is for miles below. For nearly 100 miles jackson Geoi. 
it flows between high banks which are densely wooded. ^^^°'^- '^^^• 
The writers quoted generally speak of the locality as 
mountainous, a description hardly exact, for the region 
is rather hilly, but without heights of importance. In 
the process of time immense low-lying meadows or inter- 
vales have been formed of great fertility on account of 



30 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

the periodical irrigation. Though high ground and even 
cliffs are characteristic of the land skirting this valley, the 
shore in some places is low and stretches off in immense 
plains extending far inland. This is especially the case 
at Fort Kent, Avhere the junction of the Fish Eiver with 
the St. John has formed alluvial soil. Jackson's Report 
for 1836 describes the geological formation of this part 
of the State, as well as the characteristic features of the 
territory. The report of Hamblin, the land agent, in 
1839 says: "Upon a glance at the public lands it will be 
seen that the fertile valley of the St. John River extends 
through the whole breadth of the northern part of the 
State, and with the Aroostook valley includes above one- 
third part of our whole territory," 

The Acadian vanguard traversed this valley for some 

30 miles before it halted on the south side of the river, 

two or three miles below the Madawaska and the present 

town of Edmonston. The French found here two Cana- 

,, . „ , dians keeping a trading house. Both these men were to 

Maine Resolves, r o o 

1832. figure in the political history of later years, Mr. Deane 

in his admirable letter to Gov. Smith, written in 1828, 
gives this account of them: In 1783, a Canadian boy 
named Pierre Lizotte wandered away from home and lived 
for some months with the Maliseet Indians of the St. 
John. On his return home, he induced his half-brother, 
Pierre Duperre, to go back to the Madawaska region with 
him, and here in 1783 they set up a trading house, where 
the Acadians found them, and not far from the spot 
where John Giles, in his narrative of captivity among the 
Maliseets, relates that he found an old Indian keeping a 
trading station. 

The valley of the upper St. John, while there is no 
'^ R?°9,i ^ "" record of its occupation by whites prior to Lizotte's com- 
ing, had been long known to the French. Champlain's 
map of 1612 faintly delineates the district. Francklin's 
map of 1686 mentions the name Madawaska, applying it 
to Lake Temisquata, The name itself is from the In- 
dian word Med-a-wes-kek, signifying "porcupine place," 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 31 

or "junctiou of rivers." It was softened by the French 
into Madoneska, and changed by the English into the un- 
musical Madawaska. 

There is no necessity of assuming that the twenty gj|^,^3,^,^j„j 
families who arrived in the upper valley in 1784-5 stum- ""• 
bled on the place by accident or settled there by an ac- „ ^ r. r, 

•^ •' J Raymond, C. H. 

cident. On the contrary, such information as has been R-.v.i.,p-335- 
handed down shows the contrary. During the Eevolu- 
tion Gov. Haldimand utilized the St. John as a postal 
route. In a letter written Nov. 37, 1783, to Gov. Parr, 
he states that he has been informed by Louis Mercure, 
one of the Acadian couriers, that the French wished to 
come to Quebec for the sake of their religion. He sug- 
gested that it would be a good plan to establish them at 
Grand Falls. Long before this time, the couriers de bois, 
who ranged all over the country in their fur trade, must 
have informed the people at St. Ann of the nature of the 
country above the Falls. The British commissioner, Hol- 
land, in his report to the governor, stated July 1<o, 1787, '"a^' doc^""""^' 
that he met Capt. Sproule, Surveyor General of Xew 
Brunswick, at Madawaska. He mentions the repugnance 
expressed by the Acadians to the idea of being separated 
from the province of j^ew Brunswick. Later on in this 
same report he says: "I informed the people disposed 
to settle on the spots Mr. Finlay pointed out as most 
convenient for the establishment of post houses on the 
road. They in general were inclined to settle from the 
Falls up the St. John as far as Madawaska, the land thus 
far being good, but from there to the St. Lawrence I 
found them much averse to settle, owing to the barren- 
ness of the land in general." This, when considered with 
the statement that lands were promised the Acadians on 
leaving the lower St. John, and with the letter of Gov. 
Haldimand revealing an intention of building a settlement 
in this locality which would facilitate postal service and 
colonize the country between the St. John and the St. 
Lawrence, shows almost conclusively that the Acadian 
settlement was part of a plan originating with the Eng- 



4« 



32 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

lisli government. Is^o doubt whatever would exist on the 
point were there not most positive testimony to the con- 
trary. 
maine The State documents of the Xew England boundary 

Docum«fnts on dispute deal largely with the Acadians of Madawaska. 
settlement, r^^^^ ^^^,^ ^^^^^ ^^.^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ informed on this head were 

Deane. Messrs. Deane and Davies, the American commissioners. 

Maine doc..iS28- They travelled through the district in 1828, and have 
left their judgments on record. First, Mr. Deane : ''The 
Acadians, or neutral French, whose ancestors had been 
settled at the head of the Bay of Fundy, or in that coun- 
try now called Xova Scotia, and had been driven from 
thence and had established themselves at St. Ann's, now 
Fredericton, and in that region, being disturbed by the 
introduction of the refugees and the acts of the governor 
• of Xew Brunswick, which disposssessed them of their 
farms, fled up the St. John in seach of places of residence 
out of the reach of British laws and oppression; 20 or 
more families moved and settled themselves on the St. 
John, below the trading station, which Pierre Duperre 
had made a few years before. Here they continued in un- 
molested enjoyment of their property for some years." 
Daoies. Next, Mr. Davies: "It may be proper to advert to 

Resolves, 1S28. the situatiou of a colony of French settlers which planted 
itself within our territory, principally, if not entirely, 
since the acknowledgment and establishment of the 
bounds of Massachusetts by the treaty of 1783. Situated 
near the borders of the American territory, they appear 
to have preserved their neutral character and to have 
remained as a people by themselves, so far as they might 
be permitted by their position toward the province of New 
Brunswick. Without having any sympathy with the sys- 
tem established in that government, they have not been 
in a condition to oppose the exercise of any power that 
might be exerted over them." 

Both these documents evince throughout a convic- 
tion on the part of the writers that the xA.cadians settled 
in Madawaska of their own volition; and whatever the 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



33 



English may have clone in their regard was done against 
their wishes. 

Both these docnments date from 1828 at the earli- 
est. The information on which they were built is not 
given; the documents were arguments in the boundary 
claim, gotten up long after the actual settlement. There 
is no evidence extant to prove that the State of Maine 
knew anything of the Madawaska settlement prior to 
1817, when certain Kennebec men settled above it on 
the same river. The State of Maine claimed all the land 
as far up as the St. Lawrence watershed, and the com- 
missioners wished to prove that the settlements within 
this territory were effected without British co-operation. 
But in the light of the evidence the claim in regard to 
the French settlement seems unwarranted. Another fact 
which shows how thoroughly the English had taken pos- 
session of the new settlement is found in the court rec- 
ords of Quebec. In the court of common pleas, proceed- 
ings were commenced in 1789 and continued to Jan. 20, 
1791, in a suit for damages brought by Pierre Duperre 
and Augustine Dube, residing at Madavv^aska. Both these 
men were Canadians. 

Relative to Duperre, who figures more anon, Mr. 
Deane has this to say: " Pierre Duperre being a man of 
some learning had great influence with his neighbors, ^eane, p 
and the British authorities of the province of New Bruns- 
wick, seeing his consequence in the settlement, began 
early to caress and flatter him. In the year 1790 they in- 
duced him to receive from them a grant of the land he 
possessed. Influenced as well by Duperre as with the 
hope of not being again disturbed and driven from their 
possessions as they and their ancestors more than once 
had been by the British, this large body of Frenchmen 
were all induced to receive grants from New Brunswick 
of the land they possessed, for which some paid 10 shill- 
ings and others nothing." 

Though the Acadians of Madawaska did not bother 
their heads about town politics, and seemingly found a 



n. e. 

Boundary 
Dispute. 



Duperre. 



34 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



Petition to 
Bishop of 
Quebec. 

See appen. 



way to dispense with the ekiborate political machinery 
that is part of every American village, they very quickly 
took the initiative and showed that they understood the 
right of petition when they thought the occasion required 
it. In 1T92, 24: heads of families acting for 31 families, 
the total number in the settlement, made up a petition 
to the Archbishop of Quebec, asking permission to build 
a church. This petition is a curiosity in its way and is 
appended. It is the only authentic document of an 
early date emanating from the people themselves. It 
shows quite conclusively the number in Madawaska at the 
time. Moreover, it shows that from the first the Cana- 
dian element had an important part in the settlement of 
this territory. The good priest who drew up the petition 
(for the people could neither read nor write), took care 
to indicate in the margin beside each signature the na- 
tionality of the signer. Nearly half the signers were 
Canadians. The Acadian names are quite distinctive, 
and can generally be easily known from the Canadian. 
The names, Ayotte, Souci, Gagne, Levassour, Denoye and 
Mazzerol, are Canadian; the rest Acadian. 



To His Lordship, 

John Francis Hubert, Bishop of Quebec, etc.: 
The people of Madawaska, York County, Province of New Bruns- 
wick, on the St. John River, your most obedient children in God, 
having been informed of the prohibition against building a church or 
chapel without Your Lordship's permission, take the liberty in all 
respect of placing before your eyes certain reasons which they con- 
sider good and well-founded for obtaining this permission. 
See appendix 4. The undersigned petitioners, Your Lordship, have in all this 

region no fit church or chapel for the celebration of divine service 
during the time of the mission. Thus far necessity has obliged them 
to hold these services in some poor bark hut, the poverty and misery 
of the few inhabitants, none of whom have been here more than seven 
years, permitting nothing else. But now that the number of people is 
multiplied by the richness of the soil which attracts strangers, there 
is every hope that the establishment will be permanent. The first 
idea and design of the inhabitants is to build in wood a decent and 
proper chapel according to the means of the people, who cannot but 
increase. It is impossible to find in this region sufficient material to 
build in stone. Thus, having explained their need, unanimous among 
themselves and with the Indians, who, delighted with the idea of the 
French, have promised to contribute to the expenses of the building, 
the petitioners most humbly beg Your Lordsliip to approve of their 
project and to grant your consent so that they may go to work as soon 
as possible. Entirely convinced und assured of obtaining your 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



35 



approbation, they have before the departure of the Indians made with 
these the necessary agreements. We, the chosen church-wardens 
for conducting the work, have promised and do now promise that after 
Your Lordship's approbation has been given, they will work together 
peaceably to finish the project in hand in such a manner as to merit 
your protection and render the establishment worthy of your remem- 
brance. The undersigned know of no titular or patron of their region, 
and humbly ask Your Lordship that in permitting them to build 
a chapel you will be pleased to accord them a patron saint as a pro- 
tector of their new settlement. Your humble petitioners will not 
cease to raise their feeble prayers to heaven for the conservation of 
your illustrious person, so necessary for the welfare of the faithful and 
particularly for that of the undersigned, who believe themselves most 
honored to be counted in the number of your most respectful and 
obedient children in God. 

Marque de t Joseph Degle ler Mar- Marque de t Joseph Guimon. 

guillier. " tAlexandie Albert. 

tJacquesSir2dMarg. " tMathurin Beaulieu. 

tAIexandre Ayotte 3 " tjoseph Degle fils. 

lerMarg. " tjean Levasseur. 

tj. Bte Sir. " tBaptiste Degle. 

tFrancios Sir. " fj. B. Denoyer. 

tOlivier Tibaudo. " fSimon Hebert. 

tPaul Sir. " fGermain Souci. 

tjos Souci. " tOlivier Tibaudo fils 

Pierre Syr " tJ. B. Tibaudo fils. 

tAntome Gagne, " fJ. B. Nasserol. 

tFrancois Albert. " fLouis Sanfacon. 

Seven inhabitants of the said locality being absent were not able 

to sign, but before their departure they have testified that they would 
approve whatever would be decided upon by the assembly. 

Madawaska, July 23, 1792. J. H. Paquet, Ptre missre. 

A letter from Fr. Dionne, quoted bv Eanieau. 
states that the names of the Madawaska Acadians ""cTap^Js.""' 
show that they are come of the purest Acadian 
blood, nearly all the families being- derived 
from the original families of 1671. The jDctition 
was granted and the church, dedicated to St. Basil, was 
built on the north side of the St. John, some five miles 
below the Madawaska. From its archives the petition 
has been copied. These archives, running back to 1792, 
show some other facts about the early history of the col- 
ony. The first recorded baptism in that year is of a 
Daigle, an Acadian; the next two, Soucy and Sanfacon, 
are both Canadian. 

After the Acadians had received their grants they 
seem to have settled down to undisturbed peace for some 
years. Mr. Deane's letter has some information on this 
head : 



36 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

"A few families established themselves in 1807 a few 
miles above the mouth of the Madawaska Kiver. They 
all lived in mutual good-fellowship, recognizing and prac- 
tising the duties of morality and religion and governed 
solely by the laws of honor and common sense. They 
continued to live in this manner to as late a period as 
1818, and the British had made no grant higher up the 
St. John than those mentioned above, unless the trans- 
portation of the mail through to Canada and the grant- 
ing of a commission to Pierre Duperre in 1798 as captain 
of militia, there being no military organization until 28 
years afterwards, may be called acts of jurisdiction. In 
1798 the Eiver St. Croix was determined, and its source 
ascertained under the treaty called Jay's treaty. At this 
period terminated all acts and pretences of acts of juris- 
diction in the Madawaska settlement by the British for 
a period of 20 years, and until it was discovered by them 
that Mars Hill was the northwest angle of jSTew Bruns- 
wick." 

"About this tim.e, 1790, another body of the descend- 
ants of the Acadians or neutral French, who had sought 
refuge on the Kennebecasis river, were there disturbed in 
their jjossessions and in like manner sought a refuge with 
their countrymen at Madawaska. After having residence 
at Madawaska some years they were induced, as their 
countrymen had been, to receive grants of the land they 
had taken into possession from the Governor of New 
Brunswick." 

c. H. R., igoo, Tor the names of the original grantees, I cannot do 

^' ^^^' better than quote from the admirable paper, entitled 

"iSTotes on Madawaska," by Eev. W. 0. Raymond, which 
has been referred to many times during these pages : 

British Grantees, "The grantees of Acadian origin on the New Bruns- 

Tirsterant. ^\^ck side were Louis Mercure, Michel Mercure, Joseph 
Mercure, Alexis Cyr, Oliver Cyr, Marie Marguerite Daigle, 
Jean Baptist Daigle, Paul Cyr, Pierre Cyr, Alexandre Cyr, 
Jean Baptiste Thibodeau, Jr., Joseph Thibodeau, Etienne 
Thibodeau. The grantees of Acadian origin on the Amer- 



See appendix 5. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 37 

ican side of the river were Simon Hebert, Paul Potier, 
Jean Baptiste Mazerolle, Jr., Praueois Cyr, Jr., Joseph 
Daigle, St., Joseph Daigie, Jr., Jacques Cyr, Francois 
Cyr, Firmin Cyr, Sr., Jean Baptiste Cyr, Jr., Michel Cyr, 
Joseph Hebert, Antoine Cyr, Jean Martin, Joseph Cyr, 
Jr., Jean Baptiste Cyr, Sr., Pirmin Cyr, Jr., Jean Thibo- 
deau, Sr., Joseph Mazerolle. In addition to these there 
are several grantees, whose descendants claim to be of 
Acadian origin, and say their ancestors came from the 
^lower country' (pays-bas) ; but I am not able to determine 
whether the following are undoubtedly of Acadian origin 
or not, \4z. : Louis Saufacon, Mathurin Beaulieu, Joseph 
Ayotte, Zacharie Ayotte, Alexandre Ayotte. 

"Respecting the grantees who are undoubtedly of 
Canadian origin, those on the New Brunswick side of the 
river are Jean Tardiff, Jean Levasseur, Joseph Dumont 
(or Guimond) and Antoine Gagnier; and those on the 
American side, Joseph Sausier, Jean Marie Sausier, Jean 
Baptiste Pournier, Joseph An Clair, Francois Albert, 
Pierre Lizotte, Augustin Dube and Pierre Duperre. 

"The second grant, made in the year 1794, extended 
from Green river (with many vacancies) to a little below 
Grand river. Some six names that occur in the former 
grant are omitted from the enumeration that follows. 
Several of the settlers in this grant are known to have for- 
merly lived at French Village, on the Kennebecasis. The 
names of those Acadians who settled on the east side of 
the St. John are as follows : Olivier Thibodeau, Baptiste 
Thibodeau, Joseph Theriault, Joseph Theriault, Jr., 
Olivier Thibodeau, Jr., Jean Thibodeau, Pirmin Thibo- 
deau, Hilarion Cyr, and there seem to have been but two 
Canadians, viz. : Louis Ouellette and Joseph Souci. Those 
Acadians, who settled on the American side, are as fol- 
lows: Gregoire Thibodeau, Louis LeBlanc, Pierre Cor- 
mier, Alexis Cormier, Baptiste Cormier, Francois Cor- 
mier, Joseph Cyr, Jr., Firmin Cyr, Joseph Cyr, Francois 
Violette, Sr., and Augustin Violette; and there are three 



Second 6raiit. 



38 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Canadians, viz. : Joseph Michaud, Baptiste Charette and 
Germain Soncie." 

, . . It should be taken into consideration that there was 

Social 

Condition, little or no question of boundary lines at the time these 
grants were made, least of all among these simple people 
whose great hope was to find somewhere a refuge where 
they could cultivate their fields and live in peace. 
Whether the authorities of the State of Maine knew of 
the establishment before 1817 or not, there is little doubt 
that the Acadians knew ver}^ little of the new republic, 
and what little they knew would not make them anxious 
to take residence within its borders. Their experience 
with Xew England men had been unpleasant. There was 
no one to tell them that the United States claimed this 
territory; they simply settled there thinking the land was 
open to settlers, and borrowed no trouble. The whole 
history of the Boundary dispute, loaded with argument 
and heated with rhetoric, exhibits no direct evidence of 
i\a\ predilection on the part of the Acadians for any par- 
ticular form of government whatever. They were self 
governing and desired merely to be let alone. They saw 
no necessity of holding a town meeting and organizing 
political machinery. Things were regulated as they had 
Maine Resolve* ijgej;^ [y^ Acadia. ]\lr. Davies, in his report of 1828, states 

IS2&, p. 7SO. ' ^ 

ihevi ccudition very well: 

"Little occasion could be presented for the employ- 
ment of criminal process among the relics of a primitive 
population represented as of a mild, industrious, frugal 
and pious character, desirous of finding a refuge under 
the patriarchal and spiritual power of their religion. It 
has been the custom for them to settle their civil affairs 
of every description, including their accidental disputes 
and diiferences by the aid of one or two arbiters or um- 
pires asscciated with the Catholic priest, who is commonly 
a missionary from Canada." 

In the American documents on the boundary matter 
it is stated that no American census of the Madawaska 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 39 

settlement was taken up in 1810, because no decision had 
as yet been reached. 

Though the State of ifassachiisetts had instituted a 
surve}' of the Xorth of ]\Iaine for the treaty of 1T82, some 
mistakes were made and there does not seem to have been 
any accurate knowledge of this part of the country until 
later. Mr. Davies in his 1828 report states: 'Tt is not 
known whether any individual of European origin existed 
on this territory at the peace of 1782; or that, excepting 
aboriginals, any other than descendants of French ances- 
tors had made any occupation prior to the peace of 1815." 
Later on it is stated: 'Tn 1817 an American was invited 
to seat himself near the mouth of the Madawaska river. . . 
This American afterwards moved away to a situation near 
the St. Francis." 

In 1825, the Maine Legislature passed a resolve: Hmcrican 
"Whereas, there are a number of settlers on the undivided **"'*•"*"'• 
public lands on St. John and Madawaska rivers, many of ^%^l, p""!^*^ 
whom have resided thereon for more than 30 years," . . 
It would appear that 1817 was the time of the first Amer- 
ican settlement and the first knowledge given to the State 
authorities of the population so long fixed there. "The 
first American settlement was made above the French and 
commenced from the clearest information in the year 
1817. It consisted of several persons then citizens of 
Massachusetts who had moved from the Kennebec and es- 
tablished themselves with their families on different 
spots, the lowest at the mouth of the Mariumpticook, and 
the highest not far from the mouth of the St. Francis." 
The two oldest settlers were Nathan Baker and John 
Bacon. 

In 1820 the American census of the district was Census of U20. 
taken up, as Mr. Washburn remarks in his paper on the washburn in 
New England Boundary, without British interference. Doc.^s'g.'^***^" 
This document is appended. It is not in its original form 
entirely; that is the different classes into which the cen- 
sus officials divide people of different ages have been 
summed up for each family head. But the names are 



40 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



1828, p. 786. 



given as the census agent took them down, often with a 
Ma^ne ^^ep^t, startling disregard for French orthograph5% Mv. Davies 
in his often mentioned report says concerning this cen- 
sus: "It amounted to over 1100. The computation prob- 
ably included a number of American settlers, who had 
come into the country not long before." An inspection of 
the list will hardly warrant this statement, for with the 
exception of the name of iSTathan Baker (above men- 
tioned) there is hardly a distinctively American or Eng- 
lish name. Besides Baker's name there is but one othei 
which is familiar to English ears — Carney. It may be 
presumed that the census man knew how to spell English 
names, and the other names in this list are so atrociously 
misspelled that one is justified in assuming that they were 
foreign to his ears. 



Extract of U. S. Census of 1S20 for Matawaska : 



Francis Violet 


9 


Lario Bellfley 


6 


Alevey Tibedore 


8 


Nicholas Pelchey 


6 


Joseph Markure 


I 


John Betuke 


5 


Henry Turdey 


7 


Alexander Crock 


4 


Lewis Willet 


15 


John B. Tibedore 3d 


[ 8 


Jos. Sompishaw 


6 


Lewis Stephed 


3 


Susan Tibedore 


II 


Henry Versier 




Jeremiah Dubey 


13 


David Tibedore 


5 


Loron Sear 


12 


Michael Tibedore 


5 


Issac Violet 


5 


Peter Crock 


7 


John Isaac Violet 


9 


John Betis Tibedore 2 


Alexander Violet 


7 


Betis Lewsure 


5 


John Mireshier 


13 


Joseph Lewsure 


6 


Peter Pelthey • 


5 


Francis Tibedo 


5 


Charles Martin 


4 


Jeremiah Crock 


6 


John B. Martin 


II 


Harris Lawshiere 


4 


Bart. Burgoin 


7 


David Cyer 


5 


Andrew Martin 


7 


Charle Adyet 


7 


Belon Martin 


4 


Peter Duperre 


3 


Bartis Morris 


7 


Peter Lezart 


II 


Charles Bolio , 


7 


John Betisiere 


10 


Peter McCure 


6 


Christopher Cyer 


10 


Jernian Morio 


9 


Joseph Cyer 


7 


Bazell Martin 


5 


John Betis Dogle 


10 


David Crock 


10 


Chrisost Cyer 


12 


Larison Violet 


4 


Joseph Adyet 


7 


Lewis Sempishaw 


7 


Xasrie Cyr 


12 


Francis Carney 


13 


Joseph Daggle 


9 


Frederic Tareo 


6 


Demeque Daggle 


6 


Simon Fred'cTareo 10 


Michael Babtert 


4 


Peter Camio 


9 


Augustine Martin 


6 


Alexander Carmio 


6 


Michael Man 


9 


Oliver Tibedore 


6 


Vincent Albert 


5 


Augustis Violet 


13 


Germanis Savvuise 


12 



Ran Pelkey 
Jarom Morio 
Vasio Bare 
Barnum Buschiere 
Jermin Joshia 
Betis Joshia 
Ely Neehoson 
Clemo Sminon 
Joseph IMashaw 
John Harford 
John Hitchambow 
Lewis Leebore 
Paul Marquis 
Gruino Chasse 
Joseph Michaud 
Albert Albera, Jr. 
Alare An L Clare 
Joseph Martin 
Simon Martin 
Joseph Albert 
Elecis Cyr 
Joseph Cyr 
p]enjamin Nedar 
Lewis Belflour 
Michael Mecure 
Lewis Mecure 
Francis Martin, Jr. 11 
Michale Martin, 3rd 10 
Michael Serene 18 
Lewis Belflour, Jr. 7 
Anthony Gauge 
Nicholas Peltiere 
Augustine Peltiere 3 
Nicholas Peltiere, Jr. 6 



10 



iS 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



41 



Francis Violet 5 

Jolin B. Parser 5 

Greguire Tibedore 12 

Paulet Tibedore 9 

John B. Gavah 3 

Augustine Gavah 3 

Phinney Stephedo 8 

Benjamin Versier 4 

Joseph Tarrio 5 

Lawrence Tarrio 7 

Phermali Dusett 11 
John B. Tibedore, Jr. 6 

George Tibedore 10 

Betis Tibedore 5 

John B. Tibedore 6 



Clement Sauciere 
Joseph Michaud 
Isaac Violetrd 
Fermin Nadard 
German Dube 
Nathan Baker 
Colemarkee Chrint 
Joseph Mashaw 
Jeremy Jermer 
Paul Marker 
Joseph Albare 
Levy Clare 
Joseph Nedow 
Mermeit Dogle 
Joseph Pelkey i ' 



Leon Belflour 3 

John Thobodeau 9 
John B. Thobodeau 7 
Jean Sier 5 

Michael Thibodeau 5 
David Thibodeau 5 
Joseph Thibodeau 8 
George Thibodeau 8 
Lewis Thibodeau 3 
Jno. B. O. Thibedore 5 



Francis Dorsett 
Lorent Jenian 
Joseph Jenian 
Benj. Lerassaus 
Honerd Lerassaus 



This census ma}' be considered as a fairly accurate 
survey of the families in this entire section at the time. 
There are 55 distinct famiW names for 1171 souls; one of 
these names is stated to be merely a nickname for an older 
family branch. Only 11 of the family names in the 1820 
census figure in the original grants of 1790 and 1794. Of 
the whole number 7 families constitute one-third of the 
population, and if the name Crock is identified with Cyr 
the list is reduced to 6. The Cyr family had 98 or 134 
members according to the reckoning. Thibodeau 163, 
Daigle 34, Martin 56, Theriault 28, Violette 64. Some of 
the Canadian families had many members, e. g., Pelletier 
58. The palm is borne off by Michael Serene, who counts 
in his household 23 persons. It will be seen that all the 
prominent settlers who were to figure in the events of 
1831 are already resident here and are counted in the cen- 
sus; among these are Lizotte, Duperre and Hebert. The 
only name recognizably American is that of Nathan Ba- 
ker, who died soon afterward. His brother John married 
the widow, took charge of the property and has gone 
down in history with the title of General and in many 
other ways contributed to make the name of Baker fam- 
ous in border annals. The men who were to obtain office 
in the abortive town meeting do not figure in this census 
at all. 

In 1825, the Legislature passed the resolve relative 
to giving deeds to the American settlers on the St. John. 
In this the State of Massachusetts having a claim on these 



Border Olar. 



42 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

lands agreed. In that same year the land agents went up 
to the territory and surveyed the land near the American 
settlement and made out two deeds, one to John Baker 
and the other to James Bacon. The British author- 
ities were not at all pleased at the advent of the Americans. 
Various pretexts were taken to assert claims over them, 
among these being an alien tax. On their part, the Amer- 
icans seem to have vindicated the character proper to free- 
men in foreign parts. They circulated a paper in form of 
a compact which bound them to adjust disputes without 
recurring to British authority. "As a prelude to this ar- 
rangement, the Americans generally assembled on land 
conveyed to John Baker by the States of Maine and Mas- 
sachusetts and there erected a staff and raised a crude 
representation of the national eagle. They also partook 
of a repast provided by Baker and enjoyed the festivity in 
the manner that is usual to Americans in celebrating that 
occasion."' Xo British authorities were invited to this 
Hag raising, but it would seem that they were supposed to 
take notice of it. It was a throwing down of the gauntlet. 
The British took it up; they cut down the flag staff and 
carried the national emblem off to Fredericton jail. In 
this unobtrusive way the little cloud on the St. John grew 
until it (almost) assumed the importance of war. Mr.- 
Letter to Gov. Dcauc statcs : "They (the British) issued legal processes 

Smith. 

against two citizens of the United States who had settled 
in' the wilderness many miles beyond where the British 
had ever exercised any acts of jurisdiction before." Only 
one of these, the one against Baker, was ever prosecuted. 

"While these things were going on in the small and 
active American settlement, the 1500 or more French 
further down the river were quietly occupying and clear- 
ing land. In accordance with their custom from the first, 
their business was done through Canadian channels. As 
early as 1797, a British Justice of the Peace had estab- 
lished himself at Madawaska; his name was Rice and he 
took part in the international politics of 1831. In order 
to show how thoroughly the jurisdictions of the United 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 43 

States and Canada were mixed at this time it may be well 

to mention a deed to some French property in the valley see appendix 6. 

of the St. John. 

As a matter of fact, though the British built forts 
and maintained garrisons, there was no serious outbreak 
until 1S31. At that time the legislature incorporated the 
town of Madaw^aska, and early in that year the members 
of the American settlement came down to the French set- 
tlement to hold a town meeting and elect officers. Since 
the history of the facts is much more interesting in the 
Avords of the men who figured in the affair, and history by 
contemporaries is the order of the day, we will let them 
tell their own story. Deposition of John Baker, taken at 
Portland before F. 0. J. Smith : 

"I, John Baker, of lawful age, depose and say that I ^'e'V of Croubie. 

am a resident on the north side of the River St. John,'^^^"^ Resolves 

1S29-35, p.p. 

about 13 miles above the mouth of the Madawaska river 473-96- 
and within the territory incorporated by the name of the 
town of Madawaska, State of Maine. That I was present 
at a meeting of the inhabitants of the said territory 
holden in the latter part of August, last year, 1831, at the 
dwelling house, of Peter Lezart, on the south side of the 
River St. John and within the limits of the said territory. 
Said meeting was holden pursuant to a warrant of Wm. 
D. Williamson, Esq., one of the justices of the peace 
throughout the State, directed to AYalter Powers, one of 
the inhabitants of the said territory, to notify certain in- 
habitants to meet as aforesaid for the purpose of organ- 
izing a government of said town, by the choice of a mod- 
erator, town clerk and selectmen. Said inhabitants so 
assembled proceeded to the choice of the officers men- 
tioned. Aforesaid Powers had called the meeting one 
Leonard Coombs, a captain in the militia in Madawaska, 
objected and protested against all further proceedings in 
the meeting and threatened the inhabitants aforesaid 
with imprisonment if they voted or took part in the fur- 



44 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

ther proceedings contemplated in the warrant calling the 
meeting. One Francis Eice, a resident at Madawaska, and 
a justice of the Peace under the provincial government of 
New Brunswick, also protested against the meeting and 
used many opprobrious and threatening terms against the 
government and the authorities of the State of Maine, 
and against all persons who were taking part or partici- 
pating in the organization of the town aforesaid. Mr. 
Powers, however, eventually succeeded in regaining order 
in the meeting and the inhabitants to the number of 50 
or 60 who were present proceeded to the choice of Barna- 
bas Hunnewell as moderator, Jesse AVheelock for town 
clerk and Dan. Savage, John Harford, Amos Maddoeks 
for selectmen. But because of the threatening language 
and tenor used by Mr. Eice and Coombs, all of the per- 
sons present aforesaid did not vote in the choice of ofh- 
eers. After these proceedings the town meeting was ad- 
journed sine die. About 12 or 15 persons voted in the 
said meeting. Another town meeting was holden for the 
choice of a representative on the 2nd Monday of Septem- 
ber, 1831, pursuant to the provisions of the constitution 
of Maine. The meeting was holden at the house of Ea- 
phael Martin in said town of Madawaska, on the south 
side of the Eivcr St. John. Mr. Eice, the same mentioned 
above, was present and opposed the proceedings, protesf- 
ing against the right of the inhabitants to hold the meet- 
ing, and again using menacing language towards them for 
participating in and countenancing it. But the selectmen 
called him to order and were allowed eventually to pro- 
ceed to the business of the meeting. There were about 80 
inhabitants present. Peter Lczart, a resident on the 
south side of the Eiver St. John, was chosen for repre- 
sentative to the legislature. For the supposed purpose of 
intimidating the voters, Mr. Eice noted in writing the 
names and proceedings of all persons who voted. On the 
25th day of the same September, 1831, it being on Sun- 
day, I received information at my house that a military 
force was collecting at the Madawaska chapel on the north 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 45 

side of the St. John river about 18 miles below me. On 
the same clay orders were circulated among the inhal)i- 
tants of the south side of the river and up as far as my 
house, directing the inhabitants to assemble the same day 
at the chapel aforesaid. I understood that one Mus- 
church, a French settler, carried these orders and made 
them known. On the same Sunday P. M. information 
was also brought that firearms to the number of 101 had 
already been collected at the dwelling house of one Simon 
Hebert, which is between my house and the chapel and 
about 15 miles below my house on the south side of the 
Eiver St. John; said Hebert is a captain of the provincial 
militia of New Brunswick. The Governor of New Bruns- 
wick Avas also said to be present at the Hebert house. Re- 
ports brought to me on the evening of the same day and 
confirmed on the next morning informed me that the 
armed force at Hebert's house had made prisoners of and 
were detaining Mr. Dan. Savage and Mr. A\nieelock, one of 
the selectmen and the town clerk aforenamed, on account 
of their participation in the proceedings of the town meet- 
ings already mentioned.* Each of these persons reside on 
the south side of the Eiver St. John and it was the de- 
clared determination of these forces to take as prisoners 
all other persons who voted at said town meetings. About 
12 o'clock or noon on the 25th day of September afore- 



* (Letter from John Wheelock & Daniel Savage.) 

To Roscoe G. Greene, Sec'y of State for Maine. — Sir: We com- 
mence this date at Capt. Simon Hebert's, Madawaska, Sept. 28, where 
we are held prisoners by the F>ritish authority for acting under a war- 
rant from Wm. D. Williamson, Justice of the Peace for the County of 
Penobscot, in the State of Maine, to call a town meeting and act on 
town affairs agreeable to an act of the legislature of Maine incorpora- 
ing this place into a town by the name of Madawaska, which warrant we 
have complied with according to law. The matter of our arrest is as 
follows. His Excellency, Sir. Arch. Campbell, Lieut. Gov. & commander 
in chief of the Province of N. B. arrived here on the 23 inst. with a 
company of the militia, the attorney Gen. of the Prov. & Mr. Mac- 
Laughlin and the sheriff of the county of York is said prov. — On 
the 24, he directed warrants to be issued against all those who acted at 
said meetings of giving in their votes, we the undersigned were 
arrested in this neighbor-hood on the 25th. On the 26th the sheriff & 
capt. Coombs with some militia ascended the river to Mr. Bakers to 
arrest those in that neighborhood, from thence to the St. Francis 
settlement excepted to return to-day — then we are to be sent to 



46 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

said, I discovered about "20 canoes coming up tiie St. John, 
apparently in great haste, with one or more men in each. 
These landed just below my mills. I retreated to a dis- 
tance and watched their movements. After examinino- 
my mills they proceeded to the other houses and searched 
them, also thence returned to my dwelling house, where 
they posted sentinels armed with muskets. While I re- 
mained in the woods, Mrs. Baker, my wife, came to me 
and informed me that Bart. Hunnewell, Dan. Been and 
several French settlers were held as prisoners by the sol- 
diers then at my house — that Mr. Miller, the high sheriff 
of the Province of Xew Brunswick, had searched the 
house throughout and afterwards directed her to advise 
me to surrender myself to the British authorities, and 
that if I would go to Simon Hebert's house, where the 
Governor and the Attorney-General of the province then 
were, and give bail for my appearance at the courts at 
Fredericton, I should be released, that it was in vain for 
me to think of keeping out of the way, as they intended 
to keep up a garrison throughout the territory and force 
me into compliance to the British authorities." 

Baker goes on to relate the things that befel him up 
to the time he escaped and went to Portland to make his 
deposition, which was taken as evidence for the boundary 
dispute. The two members of the unfortunate town gov- 
ernment who fell into the hands of the British wrote to 
the Secretary of State of Maine, Sept. 28 of this year, re- 



Frederiction jail — when the rest of our unfortunate countrymen 
arrive, we will inlist those names and numbers together with whatever 
information shall come to our knowledge. The families of them will 
be left in a deplorable situation (unless the gov.) will immediately 
relieve them. (3ur intention is to forward this by the way of Houlton 
as we pass through Woodstock. With high consideration. 

Your humble servts. 

Jesse Wheelock. 

Dan. Savage. 

The sheriff returned last night with capt. Coombs and militia with 
about 30 French prisoners and 2 Americans, Barnabas Hunnewell and 
Dan Been — the rest of the Americans fled to the woods. We are now 
descending the river — stopped to-night about miles above Wood- 
stock the 30th. N. B. — The French all gave bonds, some for trial and 
some for good behavor. 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 47 

lating their misfortunes and among otlier things stating 
that the militia took about 30 of the French prisoners. 
These all gave bonds for appearance at Fredericton court. 

The federal government was not so eager to proceed 
to extremes as were the State authorities, and so the 
trouble hung fire for some time. The subsequent mili- 
tary operations which with many strange happenings have 
gone down in history under the name of the Aroostook 
war, took place not along the shores of the St. John river, 
but along the Aroostook. The affair was finally settled 
by the Ashburton-AVebster treaty in 1S43. The line be- 
tween Maine and Canada passed through the middle of 
the St. John river, thus cutting the Madawaska settlement 
in two. 

The history of the l)0undary dispute comes into the 
history of the Madawaska settlement only by accident, 
but if it were not for this trouble and the investigation it 
made necessary, our knowledge of the early times in this 
part of the State would be much more obscure and legend- 
ary than it is. The occurrences have been related some- 
what at length in order to show precisely the line taken 
bv the French in the affair. It has been seen that the 
French were promised lands before leaving Xew Bruns- 
wick. This promise appears to have been kept. The land 
was surveyed and deeds given by the autliority of the 
Province of New Brunswick. Later on a move was made 
to recruit militia among them, and though Mr. Deane says 
the Acadians objected to this, it is not necessary to al- 
lege that threats of force was used to make them join the 
militia, since one of their number had been appointed 
captain, and he the most important man in the settle- 
ment. When the American settlers came down to the 
Madawaska river to hold a town meeting, the inhabitants 
numbered nearly 2000 and the district was in a measure 
organized as a part of Xew Brunswick. There had been 
a provincial Justice of the Peace resident among then\ 
since 1797. 



48 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Baker's deposition is a significant document. It 
shows pretty well the political situation in Madawaska in 
the 3'ear 1831. The agitation for the town government 
was exclusively an American idea; the French apparently 
took no initiative in the matter. If the provincial gov- 
ernment, seeing the importance and influence of Duperre 
in the settlement, began early to caress and flatter him, 
the Americans on their arrival in the country lost no time 
in attempting the same tactics with his half-brother. 
These two men exercised paramount influence in the set- 
tlement. In our days, they would be termed "bosses." 
Each party tried to gain the friendship of one of these 
men and so draw over the rank and file. The people at 
large were of course totally incapable of appreciating the. 
merits of the controversy and had to take their cue from 
some leader. Such public opinion as there was before the 
advent of the Kennebec men would naturall}^ be in favor 
Oi the Province of New Brunswick, if for no other reason, 
in default of another claimant. From that province they 
had received grants to their lands and such government as 
was exercised among them. Moreover, England had the 
advantage of possessing on the spot a force large enough 
to back up any claims her representatives might make. 
This was doubtless a convincing argument with the 
French, as it would be with any simple body of people so 
constituted. But there is no reason for making the hy- 
pothesis of fear to account for the action of the Acadians, 
for up to 1818 there was no other party in evidence. 

In order to carry their point the Kennebec men went 
down to the French settlement; they assembled in the 
house of Lizotte, a man of influence, who would be able to 
collect several of his people. The 50 or more who assem- 
bled were undoubtedly Lizotte's friends and supporters. 
At this time the population of the district was not far 
from 2000; a large proportion of these w^ere men old 
enough to vote. Yet after all only 50 came, and the party 
Avas so weak that the provincial authorities came into 
Lizotte's house and threatened him and his friends for 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 49 

voting. These threats had so much influence that hardly 
any of the French voted. Evidently the arguments of 
Lizotte and his Kennebec friends were not very cogent. 

The next meeting was practically a repetition of the 
first, though a strong bid for popular favor and votes had 
been made by the prospect of Lizotte's nomination to the 
State Legislature. Even with this dazzling prospect held 
out to the French the results were far from encouraging. 
Only 80 came to the meeting; it is not stated how many 
voted, but the proportion could not have been large or it- 
would have been mentioned. 

There is no evidence of a spontaneous out- 
burst of American feeling among the French in- 
habitants; some were found to join the Kenne- 
bec men, as some can be found ready for almost 
any venture in a populous settlenient. There was no ade- 
quate reason why the Acadians, knowing practically noth- 
ing of the State of Maine, having tasted no benefits from 
that commonwealth, should cease to let well enough alone, 
turn against the government in force among them, expose 
their families to possible exile and jeopardize the title to 
their lands, in order to espouse the cause of a small and 
tiirbulent group of strangers who had done little since en- 
tering the country except foment disturbance. There 
was absolutely nothing to gain and much to lose by such 
a procedure. Then the French cared not who got 
the territory; the only thing that concerned them was the 
title to their farms. They had no reason for allegiance to 
the State of Maine. They asked nothing except to be let 
alone and to cultivate their farms in peace. 

After the meeting had been held and the militia 
chased the planners of it into the woods, and taken some 
French prisoners, we see that these prisoners made no 
difficulty about giving bonds to appear at the provincial 
court at Fredericton. From this time on to 1843, the 
Province of New Brunswick was practically left in con- 
trol of the French settlement of Madawaska. 

The state of society and education among the Mada- 
waska French at this period is very well shown by Mr. 



50 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Jackson in his geological report for the year 1836. 

"The whole tract between the Madawaska and this line (boundary), is 
settled by Acadians, and is known under the name of the Madawaska 
settlement. This district was incorporated as a town by the State of 
Maine, but difficulties having ensued as to the right of jurisdiction, it 
was agreed to leave the place in statu quo until the claims of the two 
countries should be adjusted; an injunction being placed, by mutual 
agreement, against cutting of timber upon the disputed territory. It 
is well known that Maine regards the usurpation by the British au- 
thorities as unjustifiabU, her unoffending citizens having been seized 
and committed to prison on no other pretence than their endeavor to 
carry into effect the laws of the State to which they belonged, by call- 
ing a town meeting The population of Madawaska 

settlement is estimated at 3000 souls, 900 of whom live above the 
Little Falls. Most of the settlers are descendants of the French neutrals 
or Acadians who were driven by British violence from their homes 
in N. S. These people first established themselves above Fredericton, 
and subsequently removed above the Grand Falls and effected a 
settlement. The Acadians are a very peculiar people, remarkable for 
the simplicity of their manners and their fidelity to their employers. 
Although they are said to be " sharp at a bargain," they are remark- 
ably honest, industrious and respectful and are polite and hospitable 
to each other and to strangers. It is curious to observe how perfectly 
they have retained all their French peculiarities. The forms of their 
houses, decorations of their apanments, dress, modes of cookery etc. 
are exactly as they originally were in the land of their ancestors. 
They speak a kind of patois or corrupted French, but perfectly under- 
stand the modern language as spoken in Paris. But few persons can 
be found who understand or speak English and these are such as 
from the necessities of trade have learned a few words of the language. 
None of the women or children either understand or speak English. 
The Acadians are a cheerful, contented and happy people, social in 
their intercourse and never pass each other without a kind salutation. 
While they thus retain all the marked charactistics of the French 
peasantry, it is curious that they appear to know but little respecting 
the country from which they originated and but few of them have the 
least idea of its geographical situation. Thus we were asked when we 
spoke of France, if it was not separated from England by a river, or if 
It was near the coast of Nova Scotia and one of them inquired if 
Bethlehem where Christ was born was not a town in France. Since 
they have no schools and their knowledge is but traditional, it is not 
surprising that they should remain ignorant of geography and history 
I can account for their understanding the pure French language by the 
circumstance that they are supplied with Catholic priests from the 
mother country, who of course speak to them in that tongue. Those 
who visit Madawaska must remember that no money passes current 
there but silver, for the people do not know how to read and will not 
take bank notes, for they have often been imposed upon since they 
are unable to distinguished between a $5., 5 lb. or a 5 shilling note. 
As there are no taverns in this settlement every family the traveller 
calls on will furnish accommodations for which they e.xpect a reason- 
able compensation; and he will always be sure of kind treatment, 
which is beyond price. I have been thus particular in speaking of the 
Acadian settlers of Madawaska, because little is generally known of 
their manners or customs, many people having the idea that they are 
demi-savages, because like the aboriginal inhabitants, they live 
principally by hunting." 

Jackson — Report — 1836 — (p. 70 seq). 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 51 

It may be interesting also to see what the Americans 
who lived in that vicinity thought of their Acadian and 
Canadian neighbors. On Oct. 2, 1843, the year of the 
Ashburton treaty, some inhabitants of that part of the ^^-^^^ Resolves 
country wrote to Gov. Kavanagh as follows : 

"It is well known to you that the settlements on the 
American side of the St. John extend, on the margin of 
the river, continuously from Ft. Kent to the easterly line 
of the State, a distance of nearly 60 miles, and from the 
same point westwardly with some interruptions to Little 
Black river at its intersection with the St. John, a dis- 
tance of 30 miles more. The whole settlement is sepa- 
rated from the other settlements in the State of Maine by 
an unbroken forest of from 30 to 60 miles in breadth. It 
is composed of Acadian and Canadian French, a few Irish- 
men and provincial Englishmen and here and there an 
American. The people are generally unacquainted with 
our laws and customs, unable to read or write, and but 
few understand our language. Their business intercourse 
has been wholly with New Brunswick and Canada — they 
have lived under British laws and are too ignorant to be 
at present capable of self-government." 

From 1790-1843, the two countries wrangled over pr^cnt 
this territory, and the inhabitants went their neglected Con**''''"- 
way, clearing and building, but able to do little to help ^" appendix 7. 
themselves socially. Madawaska was incorporated as a 
town in 1831, but this action was abortive and no further 
incorporation took place until 1869, when the towns of 
Fort Kent, Frenchville, Grand Isle and Madawaska were 
formed. If an indictment is to be formulated against the 
social and educational backwardness of this part of the 
State, in justice it ought not to retroact beyond 1850. 
During the past half century the progress of Madawaska 
has been steady, conservative and, considering the many 
obstacles, creditable to its people. This knot of settle- 
ments is situated in the extreme north, far from the State 
centres, 300 miles from the seaboard, totally removed 
from American railroads in a remote part of a relatively 



52 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



Progress. 



unprosperous State. It has had the further disadvantage 
of being cut in twain and half of it allotted to Canada. 
Eacially and territorially it is today more Canadian than 
American, yet for internal improvements it has had to 
look to a commonwealth unable to help it much. It is 
almost exclusively a farming country; its main source of 
income the sale of agricultural products. The soil, though 
fertile, is by no means to be compared with that of Nova 
Scotia or the great Aroostook valley. In order to sell his 
products the Madawaska farmer has been compelled to 
convey them long miles by wagon or dispose of them at a 
ruinous loss to itinerant traders. The agricultural devel- 
opment of other parts of the State has worked him noth- 
ing but harm. The land itself has been overworked and 
fertilizers are beyond his purse. In bad years he has been 
driven to the money lender, and this temporary expedient, 
as always, has become a widely prevailing condition, sap- 
ping industry and driving off the energetic. Scores, nay 
hundreds of these farms, are loaded with the mortgage 
incubus, and held in precarious tenure. This state of 
things, though it has not resulted in starvation, has held 
the settlers in an ever tightening grip of poverty. The 
increase of population also has its disadvantages. The 
younger generation has taken up new concessions in the 
interior only to repeat the sorrowful experience of their 
fathers. Lumbering has given at certain seasons of year 
a number employment but worked great harm to the 
farming industry. All manufactured goods are luxuries 
on account of the cost of carriage. . Across the river is a 
community in almost the same condition. Moreover, the 
Acadian has not the American energy and progressiveness, 
but even though he had, we could not argue much more 
for him than has been the result in the rural districts in 
other parts of the State. 

In spite of obstacles the most discouraging, the Mad- 
awaska country during the past 50 years has accomplished 
much. 

There are now in the district commonly called Mada- 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 53 

waska, which includes all the country between Van Buren 
and St. Francis and some considerable inland settlements, Schools. 
nine churches, eight of these with resident clergymen, who 
also attend many missions without church edifices. Of 
course these are all Catholic. There is a college at Van 
Buren conducted by the Marist Fathers, with a corps of 
nine professors and one hundred students. In three 
places. Van Buren, Frenchville and Wallagras, are relig- 
ious schools under charge of Good Shepherd, Eosary and 
Franciscan Sisters. The number of children of both sexes 
taught in these schools is 387. The State School Eeport 
for 1897, which paid special attention to the schools of 
North Eastern Maine, stated that there were at that time • 
in the Madawaska country 118 schools with 3690 pupils. 
There is also an efficient training school at Fort Kent, 
where most of the students are of French descent. This 
training school provides for these schools a corps of teach- 
ers who understand not only pedagogy, but also the two 
languages and the temper of the people. The man who 
has done more for the cause of education in Madawaska 
than any other one man was the late ]\Ir. A^etal 'Cyr, prin- 
cipal of this training school, who was himself an Acadian 
and a native of Madawaska. 

The building up of a school system which would sup- 
ply a fair education to the children of these widely scat- 
tered settlements has been a work of great labor. It was 
begun when the boundary was decided, but the beginning 
was very feeble. "In 1866, 24 years after the Acadians 
had become a part of the State of Maine, the State 
Agent's report shows that there were but 7 schoolhouses 
in the whole territory, most of them quite small and illy 
constructed, and during that year but 20 schools were 
maintained, with an aggregate of 61-1 pupils, 322 of 
whom studied English. In 1871 the last year during 
which the schools were maintained under this plan (the 
whole district under one agent), the number of schools 
had increased to 47, two of which, i. e. those at Fort Kent 
and Frenchville respectively, were denominated high 
schools." 



54 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

The section was then divided off into organized dis- 
tricts. "In 1876, four years after the organization of this 
system, in 11 towns and plantations were maintained 83 
schools, attended by 2075 children. There were but 42 
schoolhouses in these towns and plantations; 35 of these 
were of the most primitive character, and not more than 
3 were in condition fit for the accommodation of schools 
in other than the warmer months of the year." 

In 1877 the State provided for the erection of two 
normal schools. From the one at Fort Kent has grown up 
the Madawaska Training School. 

"Since the establishing of the Training School at 
Fort Kent, a greatly increased interest in the education 
of the young, especially in the English language, has been 
developed. The clergymen of the various parishes have 
lent their aid to this good work and a noticeable improve- 
ment has been made from year to year." 
Reiiflien. The Acadians were and are a profoundly religious 

people. Certain historians have stated that they were 
superstitious, but those who know them state that their 
faith is marked by the common sense of which Mr. Deane 
spoke. Were their religion not of the most solid charac- 
ter, there would have resulted in their long wanderings 
and life in the woods a great loss of faith and morality. 
In point of fact, the high standard of morality so charac- 
teristic of the Acadian in his native shores is equally char- 
acteristic of him today in Madawaska. For many years 
after their arrival in the upper St. John, they had no resi- 
dent clergyman among them. Such religious ministra- 
tions as they received were given by a hard worked mis- 
sionary who had to come hundreds of miles to this remote 
district. His work was necessarily confined to the essen- 
tials. In 1794 a priest was stationed at St. Basil, but 
since the farms stretched for miles up and down the river, 
any adequate attendance was beyond the power of one 
man. There was no church on the American side of the 
St. John until about 1830. Mr. Davies' report of 1828 
states that some families had settled at a place called 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 55 

Chateauqua, near Frencliville, and had set about building 
a church, but of this nothing is known. 

In 1838 there were two churches, one in Van Buren Cbui-cucs. 
(St. Bruno), and the other at Van Buren (St. Luce). Dur- 
ing the next decade the settlements began to be more or- 
ganized and other churches rose. In a country of such mag- 
nificent distances, there was competition naturally about 
the location of these edifices; each man wanted one near 
his house. Some differences arose on this head, notice- 
ably in the case of the church of Mount Carmel, whose 
situation between Grand Isle and St. David gave rise to 
many dissensions, and it was removed. It may be that 
this is the church mentioned by Mr. Davies as being built 
in 1828 at a place called Chataucoin. At all events there 
is now no sign of church or churchyard except the little 
God's Acre with its lonely cross that arrests the eye of 
the traveller along the road between Grand Isle and St. 
David. The Mount Carmel church was replaced by one at 
Grand Isle, which is still in use and which was built some 
time posterior to 1858. The materials for this churich 
were taken from a structure erected by the people of Van 
Buren some six miles above the town of that name, where 
the location is marked by an iron cross. These various 
changes were not accomplished without some heart-burn- 
ings, but parish lines were finally settled so as to be 
mutually satisfactory. The present church of St. David 
was erected about this time. The church at St. Francis 
is evidently of early date but its date is not precisely 
known. 

In later days the spread of population in- 
land has given rise to new parishes and new 
churches. Two modern structures have been built in Wal- 
lagras, some seven miles from Fort Kent, in the hills and 
near Eagle Lake, and at St. Agatha, on the shores of 
Grand Lake, a dozen miles from the St. John River- 
These places are not properly within the limits of the 
older communities of Madawaska and are largely composed 
of Canadian people. Most of the churches in this region 



56 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 



Diocese of 
Portland, 

1855. 



are surprisingly well built and are a matter of much local 
pride. 

By environment and circumstances the ecclesiastical 
history of Madawaska has been more Canadian than 
American. At the time the Acadians came the Catholic 
Church in New England was in its infancy. It was not 
until 1855 that the Diocese of Portland was established; 
it embraced the two states of Maine and New Hampshire, 
a large territory with few workers. The Acadian settle- 
ment on the Canadian frontier was separated from the 
rest of Maine by hundreds of miles of trackless forest 
and there was not an adequate force of priests to supply 
the wants of the populous coast cities. Hence for years 
this Northern district was administered by priests from 
Canada who worked with zeal and devotion there, when 
circumstances permitted it this condition was changed. 
The second Bishop of Portland, Bishop Healy paid great 
attention to these Northern missions and established 
schools and religious facilities in them. 



Following is a list of the early missionaries of Madawaska 
Leclaire, cure de I'lsle Verte, Co. Temiscouata, 1786- 1790 
Paquet " " " 

Ciquard, Sulpician, residing St. Basil and at 
Amiot, cure De St. Andre de Kamouraska . 
Vazina " " 



Dorval " " 

Hott, resident at St. Basil 
Amiot returns cure St. Andre 
Kelly, resident at St. Basil 
Raby, 

Marcoux, " " 

Lagarde, " " 

Ringuette " " 

Sirois " " 

Mercier " " 

Langevin " " 



1791-1795 
1794- 1798 
1799 

1800- 1802 
1803- 1804 
1804- 1806 
. ■ 1807 -1808 
1808- 1810 
1810-1813 (Oct). 

(Nov.) i8i3-i8i8(Aug). 
(Sept.) 1818-1821 (Aug). 

(Nov.) 1821-1826 (Aug). 

(Oct.) 1826- 1831 (Aug). 

(Oct.) 1 83 1 -1835 (Sept). 

(Oct.) 1835 -1857 (Apr) 



Summary. 



After this date Madawaska began to divide off into parishes. Indeed 
St. Bruno had already been formed into a separate parish in 1838, 
having had a church for some years before that time, but attended 
from St. Basil. St. Luce (Frenchville) had for its first resident priest 
Rev. H. Dionne who came in Aug. 1843. i'he church had been built 
for some years, from 1837 or 38. The district on the Canadian side of 
the St. John is now divided into 16 missions having churches and is 
attended by 1 1 priests. 

When one reads the history of Acadia from the first 
venture in 1604, remarks the elements that went to form 



The Acadians of Mauawaska. 57 

this settlement, its isolation, its wars, the fact that the land 
changed hands 9 times in a century, that the expatriates 
of 1755 left there their all, that the founders of Mada- 
waska wandered for nearly 40 years, in the winderness ere 
they saw their promised land, and entering in found it a 
bleak forest, he will understand something of the obsta- 
cles that beset this people in their march of progress. 
Other colonies had a mother country to look to; this had 
none. Other pioneers had struck into the untrodden 
wilds, but it was with the implements of husbandry and 
building, with somewhere a basis of supplies. These peo- 
ple came out of the woods, pariahs, poorer than the abor- 
igines. To further increase their difficulties, they settled 
in a spot which was to become the bone of contention be- 
tween two governments for more than 30 years. They 
suffered all the evils of a disputed Jurisdiction, and finally 
saw their little community cut in two by an international 
boundary line. They who lived on the American side of 
the St. John had all the disadvantages of Canadians with 
none of their blessings, few as these were. Their Ameri- 
can territorial position was but nominal. For the rest 
of the State they were as the Indians. The year of grace 
18-13, which saw the settlement of the boundary question 
and Maine's 23d birthday, found the Madawaska Acadians 
after an occupation of 53 years a vast struggling unorgan- 
ized frontier settlement, without government, without 
schools, isolated from the rest of the State territorially 
by an impassible forest nearly 100 miles in width, isolated 
socially by an alien tongue, a despised religion and out- 
landish customs, without a tendril stretching out to them 
from the widening branches of American national life. 

Not a town along the St. John was incorporated until 
three years after the close of the Civil War. Then the 
organization was mostly on paper and embraced but four 
places, Madawaska, Grand Isle, Frenchville and Ft. Kent. 
Van Buren was not incorporated until 1881, St. Agatha 
and Wallagras are still plantations. From one point of 
view the wanderings of the Acadians and the final peace 



58 The Acadians of Madawaska. 

at Madawaska is certainly romantic, but practically their 
life was and to an extent still is hard and crude beyond 
measure. Not an axe or a spade could reach Madawaska 
except across the line from Canada or by a long and costly 
journey from the United States. The smallest manufac- 
tured article was a luxury of price. There were no stores 
at first; there was no money if traders came into the dis- 
trict. The inhabitants were thrown back upon their own 
industry and ingenuity. It was fortunate for the Aca- 
dians that their ancestors had gone through this experi- 
ence before, and understood how to live under the circum- 
stances. They were their own blacksmiths, and outfitters. 
Maidens wore their kirtles of homespun until lately in 
this part of the country because they could get nothing 
else. It is only lately that the homespun has 
ceased to be the common material for clothes; it is still 
far from a rarity, especially in the back districts. 

It is pretty well settled that a man cannot pull him- 
self up by his bootstraps, but for a long time it seemed 
that this was the only chance of progress for the Mada- 
waska people. Maine knew nothing about them; their 
brethren in Canada could do little to aid them; money was 
scarce and there was no visible way of getting it. The 
Madawaska farmer had but one source of income, farming 
products, but the market was small and supplied by others 
who were on the seaboard or the railroad. It is to be 
kept in mind that there was no American railroad within 
a hundred miles of Madawaska in the early half of \he last 
century; that the river was of no assistance for transporta- 
tion, since the head of navigation was more than 200 
miles below. Enterprise would not come to a place so 
situated, roads were poor; the people driven to a hand 
to mouth existence always a little this side of actual want. 
Development could come only from the outside. Most of 
the people could not read or write, because there was no 
one to teach them. The section had to wait for educa- 
tional advantages until the rest of the State was served. 
Population increased apace, new fields were cleared, the 



. The Acadians of Madawaska. 59 

boundaries of the settlements were enlarged, but life and 
progress in them all was at the same dead level, with little 
hope of improvement. These statements, universally true 
of the entire Madawaska country 50 years ago, are still 
true of the inland districts today. Few New England or 
even Maine people understand how vast and undeveloped 
the State still is. 

There is another important item to be considered in 
relation to the progress of these settlements. The win- 
ters are long and severe, snow covers the ground to the 
depth of 6 to 12 feet for six months of the year, paralyz- 
ing communication, closing schools and wrapping the 
whole country in industrial sleep. 

Succeeding years have developed other parts of the Tsoiauon. 
State, particularly the wide Aroostook valley, intersected 
it with lines of railroads, putting it in touch with the 
world markets, until its crops of grain and potatoes are 
become a marvel. All this prosperity has not touched the 
valley of the St. John, on the Canadian frontier, isolated 
by land and water from the trade marts. There has been 
scarce enough for the present population when the boys 
grew up and looked out for some chance to carve out a 
livelihood, they saw but one hope, the forest. To the 
forest they have gone with their small families, taken up 
new concessions, built log cabins, and attacked the forest 
with fire and axe, planting between the tree stumps and 
the following year burning down these stumps and making 
the land ready for the plough. One may see this work 
going on at any time. It is a work that requires stout 
hearts, good sinews and tireless industry, but the young 
men of Madawaska have taken up the burden cheerfully. 
They are working for the future. It is no small thing to 
leave the home settlements with the dearly gained im- 
provements of years, and take up life in the lonely forest 
far from church and school, but the indispensable daily 
bread had to be gained and the historians of the future 
will praise these latter day pioneers. 



6o The Acadians of Madawaska. 

Thus it is in this Northern region that the 17th cen- 
tury elhows the twentieth, and while the j)eople of 
the. older settlements without any industrial prosperity to 
encourage them are striving for education and the com- 
forts of life, their sons, instead of enjoying what has been 
earned by their fathers, have been compelled by poverty 
to repeat the sorrowful history of their ancestors. 

Modern Madawaska comprises six principal communi- 
ties, each scattered over a wide range of territory, and all 
bordering on the Eiver St. John. These are Van Buren, 
Grand Isle, St. David (Madawaska), Frenchville, Ft. Kent 
and St, Francis. These communities are better known 
by the names of their churches than by their corporate 
ones. Van Buren is St. Bruno ; Frenchville, St. Luce ; Ft. 
Kent, St. Louis. There are also two other communities 
some miles back in the lake country, St. Agatha, some 12 
miles from the St. John, and Wallagras, eight miles from 
Ft. Kent. On the opposite side of the river, in the prov- 
ince of New Brunswick a like line of settlements extends 
from Grand Falls to Connor Station. St. Leonard's is op- 
posite Van Buren, St. Ann's nearly the same to Grand 
Isle, St. Basil and Edmonston some four miles apart and 
across from St. David. St. Hilaire pairs off with French- 
ville and Clair with Ft. Kent, while Connor Station is 
some six miles below St. Francis. All these places men- 
tioned are at intervals in a valley not quite 100 miles in 
extent. They are so near together that the wayfarer 
could shape his course by their church spires and were it 
proper a signal could be sent by the church bells to and 
fro across the St. John all the way from Van Buren to 
St. Francis. 

The grouping of houses into villages, so marked a 
characteristic of some rural communities, is hardly the 
rule here. The farms were laid out with so much river 
bank allotted to each and stretching far inland. Van 
Buren, Ft. Kent and Frenchville form more or less com- 
pact towns, but the other places are composed of widely 
scattered farms. The cross roads store is little in evi- 



The Acadians of Madawaska. 6i 

denee and in fact stores of any kind are rare except in the 
three places above mentioned. It can be said with consid- 
erable trnth that the entire valley is a more or less contin- 
uous settlement. The buildings are exclusively of wood, 
the houses small as a rule, and the barns large. Bricks 
are costly and the chimney is almost invariably composed 
of sections of stove pipe. The buikTings in this part of 
the country are not overburdened with paint and lack the 
trim neatness characteristic of more fortunate communi- 
ties. This, however, only lends an added picturesqueness 
to the whole prospect and harmonizes well with the rugged 
and primitive background of the woods and hills. 

The valley of the upper St. John affords views of 
surpassing beauty, and the traveller who pauses on one of 
the elevated places along the road, from which he can dis- 
cern for miles up and down this magnificent river with its 
banks festooned with little farms or clusters of houses 
surmounted by the tapering white church spire, the per- 
spective heightened by the frowning hills and the inter- 
minable billows of forest beyond, will find it coming back 
to him many a year after. 



Appendix. 



"Quelques de ses (D'Aulnay) colons, attires comme LaTour, par 
les avantages qu'offre le port de la riviere S. Jean, etaient venus q'y 
etabhr. Ills formaient en 1755, ""e petite colonie de 150 a 200 
ames, protegee par le fort Meiiangoueche, ou le gouvernement du 
Canada entretenait une garrison. A la suite des devastations de 1775 

la petite colonie de la riviere S. Jean fut detruite ou dispersee." Cas- 

grain, Pel. p. 316. 

2 

"II y a, aux enx environs du village, onze families acadiennes 
celles-la memes que Votre Grandeur a eu la bonte de confirmer i 
Sainte-Anne. Les Acadiens qui sont restes parmi les Anglais sont 
encore tres fervents, leur seul defaut est un grand entetement, soit 
pour rester chacun dans son canton et ne vouloir point se reunir, soit 
pour avoir des terres aux memes conditions qu'ils les avaient 
autrefois, ne relevant que du roi. C'est ce que les Anglais, qui les 
detestent, leur ont reproche. Le gouvernement ne veut point les 
conceder a cette condition, cependant on a exige un serment de 
fidelite; ils sont tres difficiles a desservir, car ils restent chacun dans 
des cantons separes, I'ete, sur les bords de la mer, a la peche, I'hiver 
dans les bois, a la chasse." — Casgrain, Pel. p. 241. 

3 

" L'etablissement de la riviere Saint-Jean etait devenu un enfer 
inhabitable pour le petit nombre d'Acadiens restes sur leurs terres. 
Les uns allerent rcjoindre les depossedes qui venaient de fonder 
la colonie de Madawaska."— Casgrain, Pel. p. 368. 

. 4 

" En 1784, les depossedes de 1755 fixes a la riviere Saint-Jean, furent 
nouveau depossedes au profit des loyalistes americans et des soldats 

congedies Ces malheureuses families, impuissantes 

contre la force, n'eurent plus qu'a reprendre le chemin des forests 
Elles remonterent la riviere Jean, a trente lieues de toute habitation' 
et ouvrient, la hache a la main, les plateaux de Madawaska."— Cas- 
grain, Pel. p. 239. 

5 

A MONSEIGNEUR, 

Monseigneur L'lllustrissime et Reverendissime 
Jean Francois Hubert, Eveque de Quebec etc. 
A/oftse/[^fieur : 

Les habitants de Madawaska, Comte de York, province de Nouveau 
Brunswick, sur la riviere Saint-Jean, vos tres soumis enfans en Dieu 
apres avoir ete informes de la defense de ne batir aucune eglise ni 
chapelle san avoir prealablement obtenu la permission de Votre Grand- 
eur, prennent la respecteuse liberte d'exposer humblement a vos yeux 
les raisons qu' ils croyent justes et veritables de I'obtenir. 

Les soussignes supplians n'ont Monseigneur, dans cetendroit aucune 
Eglise ni chapelle convenable pour celebrer 1' Oftice divin pendant le 
temps de la mission; la necessite a oblige de la faire jusqu'a present 
dans une pauvre cabane d'ecorce, vii que la pauvrete et misere du 
petit nombre des habitants residens en cet endroit, dont le plus vieux 
ne pent compter compter que sept ans de d'etablissement, ne 



64 APPENDIX. 

permettoit pas de faire autrement. Mais aujouidhui que le nombre 
des habitants se multiplie par la bonte du terroir qui attire les 
etrangers, et qu'il y a esperance que I'etablissement se perpetuera. 
La premiere vue et le premier dessein des dits supplians est de batir 
en bois une chapelle convenable et decente proportionnement aux 
facultes et nombre des habitants qui ne pent que se multiplier. Car 
pour batir en piere il seroit impossible d'en trouver suffisament dans- 
ces lieux. Ainsi apres avoir expose leur besoin, unanimes entre eux 
et les sauvages qui charmes du dessein des francois ont promis de 
contribuer au deboursement necessaire pou cette batisse, ils supplient 
tres humblement Votre Grandeur de vouloir bien approuver leur 
enterprise, de leur accorder votre agrement et votre consentement af in de 
pouvoir travaillerau plutot. Pleinement convaincuset assures de I'ob- 
tention de votre approbation, ils ont avant le depart des sau\ages pour 
prevenir toutes difficultes, fait avec eux les conventions necessaires, 
elus les Syndics pour conduir I'ouvrage, et ont tons promis et 
promettent, par ces presents, apres qu'ils auront rectus les avis que 
Votre Grandeur voudra bien leur donner, travailler paisiblement a 
executer le dessein projette afin de meriter votre protection et 
rendre leur nouvel Etablissement digne de votre souvenir. Les 
soussignes ne connoissent aucun titulaire ou patron de leur endroit, 
vous supplient humblement, Monseigneur, qu'en leur permettant de 
batir une chapelle il vous plaise leur accorder un titulaire pour pro- 
tecteur de leur nouvel etablissement et ne cesseront, vos tres humbles 
supplians, d'elever leurs faibles prieres au ciel pour la conservation de 
votre tres illustre personne si necessaire pour le bien des fideles et en 
particulier des soussignes qui croyent, Monseigneur, les plus honores 
d'etre mis au nombre de vos plus respecteux et plus soumis enfans en 
Dieu. 

Sept habitants du dit lieu n'ont pu signer etant absents, mais ont 
temoigne avant leur depart approuver ce que seroit fait par I'assemble 

Madawaska, 23 Juillet, 1792. J. H. Paquet, Ptre missre. 



"The first grant of land was made to Joseph Muzerol and 51 other 
French settlers in the month of Oct. 1790, by Sir Thos. Carleton then 
lieut.-gov. of N. B. The land thus granted lay at intervals between 
the Verde (Green) R. and Madawaska R. which are about 9 miles 
apart, and on both sides of the St. John. That grant comprises 51 
several lots or plats of land sufiiciently large for a homestead for each 
settler. The second grant was to Joseph Soucier and others, in Aug. 
1794, by the same Carleton, and contained 5235 acres lying below 
Green R. These and the one made to Simon Herbert in 1825 of 25 
acres opposite to and along the Madawska, were the only grants on 
this side of the St. John." 

Coolidge & Mansfield, N. E. also Burelle's report in Boun. pap. 



(Deed to land in St. Luce & St. Bruno-Rev. J. B. Sirois to Mgr. 
Panet.) 

Know all men by these presents that the Revd Jean Elie Sirois of 
the parish of Madawaska in the County of Carleton and province of 
New Brunswick, for and in consideration of the money paid before 
the sealing and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof is here- 
by acknowledged and himself therewith fully satisfied paid and con- 
tented have granted, bargained & sold, and by these presents do grant 
bargain and sell unto the Most Reverend Bernard, Lord Bishop of 
Quebec, in the province of Lower Canada, his successors or assigns, all 
that certain piece or parcel of land and premises situated in the said 



APPENDIX. 



65 



parish of Madawaska, county of Carleton and province of New I'nins- 
wick and in that part of the said parish commonly called St. Luce on 
the southwesterly side of the river St. John measuring in front twenty 
rods bounded on the upper side by a lot of land in possession of 
Fermain Thiljodeau and on the lower side by Benjamin Boucher and 
containing the usual number of acres in proportion of the said front or 
width. Also and on the same condition all that certain piece or parcel 
of land situated lying and being in the lower part of the said parish of 
Madawaska county and province aforesaid, and commonly known by 
the name of St. Bruno, measuring in front or Ijreadth thirty rods on the 
southwesterly side of the river St. John, bounded in the lower side l)y 
Souprain Grace and on the upper side by the said Glois Thibodeau 
and containing one hundred acres by the same more or less, together 
with all and singular the improvements, profits privileges appurtances 
and hereditaments to whatsoever to the same belonging or in any 
wise appertaining and also all the estate right title interest dower title 
of dower property claim challenge or demand whatsoever of him the 
said Revd. Jean Elie Sirois of and in and to the same and evert part 
and parcel of land alcove described and premises with the appurtances 
unto him the Bernard Panet Lord Bishop of the Quebec his successors 
or assign forever. — In witness whereof the said Revd Jean J'Hie 
Sirois has hereunto set his hand and seal at Madawaska aforesaid the 
twenty second day of July in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight 
hundred and twenty eight and in the fifth year of His Majesty's Reign 

and in presence of 
Ant. Lagevin Ptre 
Francis Rice 

J. E. Sirois, Ptrc 
8 

Following is a table of statistics of the principal 
places in Madawaska. These are far from being exclu- 
sively Acadian settlements. The Aeadians and Canadians 
are now so intermarried that any accurate statistics about 
them are all but impossible, and there are now many peo- 
ple of American parentage, of other races, scattered 
through the section, but the places were first settled by 
Aeadians and the most common names among the people 
point to the same source. 



NOTE 


From 
Houlton. 


Incor. 


Pop. 
1900. 


Valuation 
1900. 


Van Buren 


75 
90 
100 
no 
126 
145 
115 
no 


1881 
1869 
1869 
1869 
1869 

(org) 1899 


1878 
I 104 
1698 
.316 
2528 

568 
1396 

784 


$229,815 
132,730 
196,895 
115,648 
105,163 

44,779 
89,346 

41,361 


Grand Isle 

St. David 

French ville 

Fort Kent 

St. Francis 


St. Agatha 

Wallagras 



There are also some plantations in the interior of the 



66 



APPENDIX. 



country principally settled by the French, and comprised 
within the parish limits of the above mentioned places. 



Connor 

Cyr 

Eagle Lake . . 

Hamlin 

New Canada. 
Winterville . . 




53.327 
49>454 
30,648 

79.813 
33.927 



It may be interesting to state that the parochial re- 
turns of 1900 from the eight Madawaska parishes foot up 
to a round 14,000. 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL 
SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS. 

No. 4. 



Pilgrirtit Puritan and Papist 
in Massachusetts* 



BY 

HELENA NORDHOFF GARGAN, 

READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 5, J902. 



BOSTON. 
J 902. 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

834-236 Congress Street. 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL 
SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS. 

No, 4, 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist 
in Massachusetts* 



BY 

HELENA NORDHOFF GARGAN. 

u 
READ AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY, JUNE 5, 1902. 



BOSTON. 
J 902. 



BOSTON : 

PRESS OF THOMAS A. WHALEN & CO. 

234-236 Congress Street. 



p.' 



N' 



OFFICERS OF 
THE N. E» CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



President, V. Rev. W. BYRNE, D.D., V. G., St. Cecilia's Church, 
Boston. 

Vice-Pres., Mr. BERNARD CORR, Boston. 

Treasurer, V. Rev. THOMAS F. DORAN, D. C. L., V. G., 92 
Hope Street, Providence, R. I. 

Secretary, Mr. WILLIAM A. LEAHY, 30 Court Sq., Room 40, 
Boston. 

Librarian, JOHN F. CRONAN, Esq., 30 Court Sq., Boston. 



Gift 
The Society 
10 K '04 



PILGRIM, PURITAN AND PAPIST 
IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Helena Nordhoff Gargan. 

Read at the Meeting of The New England Catholic Historical Society, 
June 5, 1902. 



To thoroughly understand the great movement Westward, 
which led to the colonization of Massachusetts, let us go back 
300 years and look into the condition of affairs in Europe in 
general and England in particular. 

The end of the Sixteenth and the beginning of the Seven- 
teenth Century was an age of ceaseless conflict in all branches 
of human knowledge : in politics, in science, in philosophy and 
in religion, brought about by the classical "Awakening," which 
had produced a Raphael, a Michael Angelo, a Savonarola, a 
Galilei, a Luther and an Erasmus, We must eliminate from 
our minds a great many ideas and opinions, which in our time 
are the universal axioms of our daily life, eliminate the existence 
of a great many things, which we now consider absolute neces- 
sities, and which were not even dreamt of in the days of yore. 

It was, according to Dr. Martyn Dexter, 190 years before a 
daily paper was started in London. 

One hundred and sixty years before the streets were lit in 
London. 

Two hundred and nineteen years before the first ship crossed 
the Atlantic under steam. 

Two hundred and twenty-nine years before the whistle of 
the first locomotive was heard. 

Two hundred and forty-four years before the first telegraph 
was put in operation. 

Two hundred and fifty-eight years before the first telegram 
went from the Old World to the New, thus fulfilling Shakes- 



4 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

peare's dream, that " Puck would put a girdle around the earth 
in forty minutes." 

Two hundred and seventy seven years before the still more 
marvellous telephone, and two hundred and seventy-eight years 
before the phonograph, most wonderful invention of all. 

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the religious fermen- 
tation came to an open outbreak. A number of dissenters, who 
had left under Queen Mary, returned, hoping that they might 
prevail upon Elizabeth to introduce a type of so-called "reformed 
religious service," that they had seen in Germany and Switzer- 
land. But the Queen, being a lover of ceremonial, impressed it 
upon her people. Strict laws were enforced against the Dissen- 
ters, who had been nicknamed Puritans, and when, in 1593, 
Puritanism was declared an offence against the statute law, a 
body of Puritans, mostly from London, left their country for 
Holland and established the first " Exiled Church at 
Amsterdam." 

Those remaining at home became restive under King James I.'s 
growing despotism, as shown at the Hampton Court Conference 
with the Puritan divines in 1604, and with such able leaders as 
Clyfton, Brewster and Smith, all Cambridge University men 
and stanch upholders of the "Holy Discipline," separated openly 
from the Established Church — therefore Separatists — and wor- 
shipped in their own way. 

This is the beginning of the Pilgrim movement, which origi- 
nated in the country districts of Nottinghamshire, among 
people, who, like all the English peasants of those days, must 
have been on a rather low intellectual level. 

We know that neither Shakespeare's father nor his mother 
could either read or write. The great dramatist has given us 
specimens of the peasantry of his day, studies from actual life, 
as all his characters were, such as Francis Flute, the bellows- 
mender; Nick Bottom, the weaver; Tom Snout, the tinker, etc., 
all in "Mid-summer Night's Dream," and these seem to have 
been the most learned of them, for they could combine together 
and act a play. 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 5 

By what possible process, then, could such men as these rise 
to the intellectual level of the "Holy Discipline?" The reason 
is given above : the influence — whether for good or bad — of a 
stronger mind over the weaker one. 

As Oxford in the Nineteenth Century, so was Cambridge in 
the Sixteenth, the hotbed of religious controversy, and it was 
here that, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth and by the 
"Right of Private Judgment in the Interpretation of the 
Bible," a plan for an organization of civil and religious govern- 
ment was worked out, called the "Holy Discipline," which was 
based on passages in the New Testament, notably the 
following : 

I Corinthians, xi., 28 (Geneva Version). "And God hath 
ordained some in the Church, as, first. Apostles; secondly, 
Prophets; thirdly. Teachers, then them that do miracles, after 
that the gifts of healing, helpers, governors, diversity of 
tongues." 

I Timothy, v., 17. "Let the Elders that rule well be counted 
worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word 
and doctrine." 

With these Biblical passages as a guide, the ministry of their 
Church comprised: the Pastor, who administered to the spiritual 
wants of the flock; the Teacher, who helped the pastor expound 
the "Word"; the Elders, who looked after discipline and govern- 
ment; the Deacons, who attended to the poor, and with the 
help of the "Widows," nursed the sick. 

Thomas Cartwright, professor of divinity at Cambridge (1574) 
is the originator of this "Holy Discipline," which was rapidly 
promulgated in the country districts by his pupils: Clyfton, the 
pastor of the church at Babworth, near Scrooby; Robinson, 
his assistant or teacher in the same parish, and Brewster, an 
elder of the Church and postmaster at Scrooby. 

The "Holy Discipline" was a direct blow against the Queen's 
supremacy, as in all Church matters a "Presbytery of Elders" 
were to decide. What wonder, then that the Bishops of the 
Established Church oppressed and persecuted the Separatists 



6 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

in every conceivable manner, so that these peasants at last 
resolved to leave England and settle in a country where religious 
freedom was allowed. 

After several unsuccessful attempts, so graphically described 
in Bradford's manuscript, a party of Scrooby people landed in 
Amsterdam in 1607, where some years before, as we have seen, 
the first London Congregation had settled, and where a few 
years later the neighboring Nottinghamshire Congregation of 
Gainsborough had established the "Second Exiled Church." 

The conditions in the London Congregation or Ancient 
Church at Amsterdam were so scandalous that Robinson and 
Brewster, the leaders of the Scrooby Pilgrims, resolved to move 
once more and settle in the quiet university town of Leyden. 
Had they been less sincere and earnest in their desire to live 
according to their lights, they might have remained in a city, 
where it was comparatively easy to make a livelihood, and formed 
a third exiled church ; but they disregarded all worldly advant- 
ages, that they might avoid the "moral pollution so rampant in 
the Ancient Church." 

Edward Arber, the great Protestant authority on the Pilgrim 
movement, says in speaking of this Ancient Church: "The 
history of this Society is nothing but a tissue of folly, wrong- 
headedness and violence, of hypocrisy, wrangling and immorality, 
so that its members became quite odious to the inhabitants of 
Amsterdam." 

During their eleven years at Leyden, the Pilgrims found the 
conditions of life very hard, perhaps the harder because they 
came as and had remained an organized community, dreading 
absorption into a foreign nation. 

The growing unrest in all Europe, the fact that their children 
became contaminated with the licentious life at the university to 
which students from every country in Europe flocked, the out- 
break of a war in Germany in 161 8, which was to last thirty 
long years and which drew adventurers from North, South, 
East and West into the Imperial and Anti-Imperial Armies, 
caused the Pilgrims, who had indeed well earned this' name, to 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 7 

break up for the third time and settle somewhere outside of, 
yet under the protection of England. 

Having at last, after long continued efforts procured a patent 
or grant of land from the London Company of Virginia, and 
having closed a hard bargain with certain merchant adventurers 
of London, who supplied to some limited extent the means nec- 
essary for their emigration and settlement, the Leyden Congre- 
gation were prepared in the summer of 1620 to send forth the 
first pilgrims from their community across the ocean. Under 
the leadership of Elder Brewster, they left Delft-Haven in the 
Speedwell for Southampton, where the larger ship, the May- 
flower, was awaiting them with their fellow passengers : partly 
laborers employed by the merchants, partly "Englishmen like- 
minded with themselves." Both ships, with 120 passengers on 
board put to sea, but before long, the Speedwell proved so 
leaky that it was deemed best to return for repairs. These 
made, they started again, but "when a hundred leagues beyond 
Land's End" the master of the Speedwell declared her in immi- 
nent danger of sinking, so that both ships again put about. 
On reaching Plymouth Harbor, it was decided to abandon the 
smaller vessel so that at last on September 6 (Old Style), the 
Mayflower alone with 102 passengers left Plymouth and nine 
weeks later, November 9 (Old Style), sighted the shores of 
Cape Cod. The reason why they landed here and not at "s ome 
point about Hudson's River" as their patent provided for, i s a 
disputed question to this day; however, be that as it may, they 
finally landed in a quiet harbor, where Provincetown lies today, 
but not finding any attractions for a permanent settlement, an 
exploring party was sent out, and on December 16 (Old St yle), 
the Mayflower anchored near the famous "Plymouth Rock." 

By common consent Carver had been chosen Governor of t he 
Colony, and the work of settling began at once. Before 
landing, however, they had unanimously subscribed the following 
compact: "In the Name of God, Amen. We, whose names 
are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord 
King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain and Ireland, 



8 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

Defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken for the glory of 
God and advancement of the Christian faith and in honor of our 
King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the 
northern part of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and 
mutually, in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and 
combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our 
better ordering and preservation and for the furthering of the 
ends aforesaid, and by virtue thereof to exact, constitute and frame 
such just and equal laws, ordinances and acts, constitutions 
and officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet 
for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all 
due submission and obedience." 

Having settled upon land, from which they might be expelled 
at any moment, as it did not belong to the Virginia Company, 
the Pilgrims sent word by the Mayflower in the early spring of 
1 62 1 to their friends in London, who obtained from the "Council 
for New England" (the corporation into which the North Virginia 
Branch of the London Company had been transformed) a new 
patent, which allowed 100 acres of land to every colonist 
gone and to go to New England, at a yearly rent of two 
shillings an acre after seven years. It granted 1,500 acres 
for public uses, and liberty to "hawk, fish and foul" to "truck, 
trade and traffic with the savages," "to establish such laws and 
ordinances as are for their better government, and the same by 
such officer or officers, as they shall by most voices elect and 
choose, to put in execution, and to encounter, expulse, repel 
and resist by force of arms all intruders." 

In the preamble the patent of the New England Company 
says: "We have been further given certainly to know, that 
within these late years there hath by God's visitation reigned a 
a wonderful plague, together with many horrible slaughters and 
murthers committed among the savages and brutish people 
there, heretofore inhabiting in a manner to the utter destruc- 
tion, devastation, and depopulation of that whole territory, so 
that there is not left for many leagues together in a manner 
any that doe claime or challenge any kind of interests therein, 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 9 

nor any other superior lord or soveraigne to make claime there- 
unto, whereby we, in our judgment are persuaded and satisfied, 
that the appointed time is come, in which Almighty God in His 
great goodness and bountie towards us and our people, has thought 
fit and determined, that those large and goodly territories, de- 
serted as it were by their natural inhabitants, should be pos- 
sessed and enjoyed by such of our subjects and people as here- 
tofore have and hereafter shall by his mercie and favour, and by 
his powerfull arme, be directed and conducted thither." 

In other words, the actual settlement of New England in 
1620 and 1630 was directly encouraged for the reason, that the 
Indians of New England were known to be almost extinct. 

These Indians had been killed partly by the plague, partly 
by war with the Mohawks and other tribes. 

Being now on lawful ground, they continued their work with 
renewed ardor and named the settlement New Plymouth, in 
honor of Plymouth in Old England, the last town they left in 
their native land, and ''where they had received many kind- 
nesses from some Christians there." Later the name Plymouth 
became appropriated to the town and New Plymouth to the 
Colony. 

The undertaking was full of hardships and vicissitudes from 
the beginning. Poor food, a rigorous climate, very soon told 
upon them, and death made terrible inroads into their numbers, 
Governor Carver among them in the spring of 1621. Brad- 
ford was elected as his successor and remained at the helm al- 
most without interruption for thirty-seven years. 

In spite of all their efforts and the increased number of set- 
tlers who arrived with each incoming vessel : the Mayflower, 
the Fortune, the Ann, and the Little James, the Colony did 
not prosper. The debt due the home Company had grown to 
;^i,40oin 1625, and "the creditors had lost confidence in the 
enterprise." 

In 1627 a new agreement was concluded with the London 
Company for the purchase of all their rights and interests in 
the plantation for the sum of ^1,800. This proved a most 



lo Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

successful venture and soon relieved the community from debt, 
and established a permanent basis of wealth and prosperity. 
Up to the year 1636 the pilgrims had according to Mr. Baylies 
adopted no constitution or government, except the simple com- 
pact, which was signed in the cabin of the Mayflower, Novem- 
ber, 1620, and which recognized no principle but that of allegi- 
ance to the King and the controlling power of the majority of the 
people in the transactions of the Colony. Crimes or punish- 
ments were neither declared nor defined; a few laws only and 
such as were of the most urgent necessity were established in 
1633; the Church with their pastor and elders reigning supreme 
and governing by the moral law of Moses and the New Testa- 
ment. 

In 1636, however, when Winslow was chosen governor, a 

body of laws was adopted, called "The General Fundamentals," 
which was in other words "the Plymouth Declaration of Rights," 
Article 2 of which reads as follows: 

"And for the well-governing of this Colony, it is ordered, 
that there be a free election annually of governor, deputy gov- 
ernor and seven assistants by the vote of the freemen of this 
Corporation, to rule and govern the plantation within the limits 
of this Corporation." 

The right to vote was confined to the freemen, and to become 
a freeman it was necessary to be a member of the church. 

In 1639, when William Bradford was again chosen governor, 
the towns in Plymouth Colony for the first time sent deputies 
for legislation. Hitherto the governor and his assistants were 
virtually the representatives of the people. They thus created 
a legislature or a general court. 

In the spring of 1643 a confederacy "for amity, offence and 
defence, mutual advice and assistance upon all necessary occa- 
sions" was entered into between the Colonies of Plymouth, 
Connecticut and New Haven on one side and Massachusetts 
Colony on the other. 

The articles of the "United Colonies of New England" were 
signed in Boston, and some of the reasons assigned for this union 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. ii 

were: The vicinity of the Dutch, Swiss and French, the 
hostile disposition of the neighboring Indians, the impossibility 
of obtaining aid from England in any emergency, and last but 
not least, "the alliance already formed between the Colonies by 
the sacred ties of religion." 

This confederation of the New England Colonies for mutual 
defence foreshadowed and was the forerunner of the Colonial 
Congress and later the Continental Congress. 

The Commissioners of Massachusetts, as representing the 
most powerful Colony of the alliance, claimed and obtained an 
honorary precedence, and this is the first step of the final merg- 
ing of the "Old Colony of Plymouth into Massachusetts Colony, 
which actually took place in 1692, when the primitive colonial 
charter and government were abrogated. 

A word about the various Protestant denominations in the 
Seventeenth Century may not be out of order here before 
briefly reviewing some incidents in the history of Massachusetts 
Bay Colony, or the "Puritan Commonwealth." 

Up to the reign of James I. the difference between the reli- 
gious sects was not clearly defined; Brownists, Independents, 
Separatists, Puritans, etc., we come into contact with on almost 
every page of English history. 

Now, however, English Protestantism divided itself into 
three distinct classes: 

1. The Conformist or High Ritualist, who adopted all rites 
and ceremonies retained by the Anglican Church. To this 
class belonged the King and the church authorities, who exer- 
cised their power with remorseless vigor. 

2. The Nonconformist or Puritan, who, while refusing con- 
formity with the ceremonies, adhered to the same body and de- 
fended its creed, discipline and polity — (but once in New Eng- 
land, the Puritan changed his views considerably). In England 
they had control of the House of Commons and were strong in 
literary and mercantile circles as well as with the gentry and 
the middle classes generally. A natural enmity existed be- 
tween the Conformist and the Puritan — (not so much religious 



12 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

as political — for power of control between the King and the 
Commons.) 

3. The Separatist or the Pilgrim Leyden Church, who denied 
that the State church was a Christian body, or that its minis- 
trations and ordinances were of any validity. They claimed 
their own little congregations to be the only really Christian 
churches, as they held to owe no ecclesiastical obedience to any 
person, council or authority between the majority of the mem- 
bers and the Divine Head. Eleven years in Holland, however 
tended to modify these opinions materially. 

While Plymouth Colony was still struggling other at- 
tempts at settlement on the New England coast were made, 
notably that of Thomas Weston, a London merchant, who 
came over in 1622 with seventy adventurers, mostly rabble 
from the London streets, settled at Wessagusett, twenty-five 
miles north of Plymouth, but returned to England the following 
year after considerable trouble with the Indians. In 1625 
Captain WoUaston with a gang of indentured white servants 
established himself at the site of the present town of Quincy, 
but very soon abandoned it for Virginia. 

This abandoned site was taken possession of and called 
Merrymount by Thomas Morton and his thirty followers, who 
had come over for the purpose of laying the foundation for a 
Royalist Episcopal settlement in Massachusetts Bay. Merry- 
mount, however, turned out to be a danger to Plymouth, as 
Morton not only taught the Indians the use of firearms but 
also supplied them with muskets and rum. The Pilgrims 
spoke of him as a thorn in the sides of the godly. Miles 
Standish, the military commander of Plymouth, dispersed the 
settlers of Merrymount, while their leader was sent back to 
England. 

Under the leadership of the Rev. John White the first Dor- 
chester Company had been formed for trading and fishing: a 
station had been established at Cape Ann in 1623, but the 
enterprise did not prosper. It was however the forerunner of 
the second Dorchester Company, 1628, "an affair backed up by 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 13 

men of wealth and influence," as Henry Cabot Lodge tells us, 
who secured a large grant of land for Sir Henry Roswell and five 
others. One of the six patentees, John Endicott, went out in 
1629 with a small company and assumed the government at 
Naumkeag, which is now called Salem. 

This second Dorchester Company was enlarged, and a royal 
charter was obtained in March, 1629, incorporating the "Gover- 
nor and Company of Massachusetts Bay." It gave power to 
the freemen of the company "to elect annually from their own 
number, a governor, a deputy governor and eighteen assistants, 
and to make laws and ordinances not repugnant to the laws of 
England for their own benefit and the government of persons 
inhabiting their territory." 

In anticipation of future want the grantees resisted the inser- 
tion of any condition which should fix the government of the 
company in England, and in August of the same year it was de- 
creed that the government and patent of the plantation should 
be transferred from London to Massachusetts Bay. "An order 
was drawn up for that purpose, in pursuance of which a court 
was holden on Oct. 20, 1629, for a new election of officers, who 
would be willing to remove with their families; and the court 
having received extraordinary great commendation of Mr. John 
Winthrop, both for his integrity and sufficiency, as being one 
very well fitted for the place, with a full consent chose him 
governor for the year ensuing." 

While, as we have seen, the primary reason of Governor 
Winthrop and his Puritan friends in coming to Massachusetts 
was of a decidely mercenary nature, the secondary aim was the 
construction of a theocratic state, "which should be to Christ- 
ians under the New Testament dispensation all that the the- 
ocracy of Moses, Joshua and Samuel had been to the Jews in 
the Old Testament days." 

This projected religious Commonwealth was to be founded 
and administered by the Bible, which was their book of devotion 
and their statute book; a single sentence from any part of it was 
an oracle to them, which led to such disastrous consequences 



14 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

later on. (Particularly in the case of the unfortunate Anne 
Hutchinson). 

Preparations were now made in earnest for the removal of a 
large number of colonists, and in early April of 1630 a fleet 
consisting of fourteen ships with 840 passengers of various oc- 
cupations, — almost eight times the number of the Pilgrim ex- 
odus in 1620 — under the leadership of Governor Winthrop, sailed 
for Massachusetts Bay. They arrived off Cape Ann on the 
nth of June, landed in Salem Harbor the following day and 
settled, after some allotments of land had been made, partly on 
the Peninsula of Mishawum, which they called Charlestown, 
partly on the Shawmut Peninsula, which in the course of time 
became Boston, still others followed the rivers inland and built 
their houses at Medford, Newtown (Cambridge), Watertown 
and Roxbury. 

They found a solitary white man, named Thomas Walford, 
quietly and contentedly living among the Indians at Mishawum, 
William Blackstone was in possession of Shawmut, while a 
third Englishman, Samuel Maverick, had intrenched himself on 
Noddle's Island (East Boston). These three men were, there- 
fore, the first settlers of Boston. 

They helped the Puritan immigrants to the best of their abil- 
ity with their superior knowledge of the new country, but, the 
Commonwealth once established, only requited them by in- 
justice and cruelty, as we shall see later on. 

It is not within the scope of this essay to go deeply into the 
history of the Puritan Commonwealth; the story of the rise and 
developement of that phenomenon has been copiously nar- 
rated by numerous writers. We shall only describe certain 
phases of it, in as much as they throw side lights on the Puri- 
tan character, so highly extolled by most writers, to show how 
the Puritans differed from the Pilgrims, and to examine their 
relations to people not believing as they did. 

We have already seen that the popular notion about the 
motive of their coming to Massachusetts, namely, that of found- 
ing a State "for civil and religious freedom," is not warranted 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 15 

by history. Their first and foremost aim, as borne out by the 
words of their charter, was to establish a trading colony, a 
purely money-making scheme. Indeed, all transactions of the 
Puritan fathers, as told in the old records, show them to have 
been shrewd business men, with the Bible always at their elbow, 
to be sure, but the ledger within easier reach than that. 

As for religious liberty and freedom of conscience, they ab- 
horred the very name of it; to them it was the synonym for the 
deadliest of heresies, for moral looseness and for social anarchy. 
The intolerance of the Anglican Church had made life unbear- 
able to them in their old homes, and untaught by experience 
they pursued the same course towards Anglicans and others 
in America. In the language of Macaulay: "They should 
have learned, if from nothing else, from their own discontents, 
from their own struggles, from their own victory, from the 
fall of that proud hierarchy by which they had been so heavily 
oppressed, that it was not in the power of the civil magistrate 
to drill the minds of men in conformity with his own system of 
theology." 

But the stand of the founders had been taken, and they held 

to it with pertinacity. There is not one single incident in the 

old records to show that the Puritans ever advocated or sued 

for religious freedom, but they abound in examples of bigotry, 

intolerance and supreme arrogance. Shortly after having come 

to New England, Governor Dudley, a typical Puritan, received 

an inquiry from Holland, as to whether "those that differ from 

you in opinion, yet holding the same foundation in religion, 

might be permitted to live among you," "God forbid," he 

characteristically answered, "our love to the truth should be 

grown so cold, that we should tolerate errors" ; and after his 

death, the following lines, which evidently had been his maxim 

through life, were found in his pocket : 

"Let men of God in Courts and Churches watch 

O'er such as do a toleration hatch, 

Lest that ill egg bring forth a cockatrice 

To poison all with heresy and vice." 

It was worthy of a man of this stamp to leave a legacy to Har- 



1 6 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

vard University for a course of lectures against the Catholic 
Church. 

How much more Christian in tone is Master Robinson's fare- 
well address to the Leyden Pilgrims, in which he exhorts them 
to brotherly love towards those who are "not of our communion." 
Governor Winslow tells us that Robinson was "more rigid in 
his course and way at first than towards his latter end." The 
life in Holland, the contact with men of all creeds and broader 
views at the University of Leyden had broadened him and his 
flock, so that they admitted members of the Dutch church, Wal- 
lons, French, Anglicans, Scotch Presbyterians into communion 
with them without recantation. 

Instead of rejecting the petition of those "that differed from 
them in opinion," they received them kindly, as was the case 
with one Philip De La Noye (afterwards corrupted to Delano) 
"who came to us to New Plymouth from Leyden, where his 
parents were in full communion with the French Church." 
There are other instances in the Plymouth records of aliens en- 
joying all the privileges of the Pilgrims in civil and religious life. 
Let the words of the records speak for themselves: 

"Godbert Godbertson (afterwards corrupted to Cuthbert 
Cuthbertson), who went with us to New England"; "Yea, at this 
instant, (1646) another, called Moses Symonson, a child of one 
that was in communion with the Dutch church at Leyden, is 
admitted into Church fellowship at Plymouth; also Hester 
Cooke, the wife of Francis Cooke, being a Wallon, holds com- 
munion with the Church at Plymouth as she came from the 
French, to this day" ; and Governor Bradford relates that "in 
Plymouth are many not of the separation, and we are glad of 
their company." 

A little later Dr. Francis Le Baron, a surgeon on a French 
privateer, was shipwrecked in Buzzard's Bay and taken prisoner 
to Boston. "The Selectmen" (of Plymouth), the records tell 
us, "petitioned Lieutenant-Governor Stoughton for his libera- 
tion, that he might settle in this town." This was granted and 
he married and practised here until his death in 1704. "Dr. 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 17 

Le Baron did not relinquish the Roman Catholic religion, but 
was so strongly attached to the cross, that he never retired to 
rest without placing it on his breast." 

As a last example let us mention Miles Standish, who was at 
least suspected, if not positively known to be a Catholic; never- 
theless they made him a freeman without obliging him to church 
membership. 

In this case as well as in that of Dr. Le Baron, the important 
and indespensable services he rendered to the colony were prob- 
ably the main factor of this hospitality. 

The very origin of Plymouth, as we have seen, is based on 
nobler motives than that of the Commonwealth. 
Let us sum up the reasons in Winslow's words: 
"How hard the country was, where he lived. 
"How many spent their estate and were forced to return to 
England. 

"How grievous it was to live from under the protection of 
the State of England. 

"How likely we were to lose our language and our name, of 
English. 

"How little good we did or were likely to do to the Dutch in 
reforming the Sabbath. 

"How unable there, to give such education to our children, 
as we ourselves had received" — 

and Bradford's manuscript reads as follows in regard to the last 
point: 

"But that which was most lamentable, and of all sorrows 
most heavy to be borne, was that many of their children by 
these occasions and the great licentiousness of youth in that 
country and the manifold temptations of that place were drawn 
away by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses; 
getting the reins off their necks, and departing from their 
parents. Some became soldiers, others took upon them far 
voyages by sea, and others, some worse courses, tending to dis- 
soluteness and the danger of their souls, to the great grief of 
their parents, and dishonor of God. So they saw their posterity 
would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted." 



i8 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

An almost utter disregard for worldly advantages is char- 
acteristic of the Pilgrim. He was no man of affairs like the 
Puritan, as the slow developement of Plymouth Colony proves, 
and prosperity only came to them after the commercial spirit of 
the Massachusetts Colony began to exert itself. Although by 
nature less intolerant, the Pilgrim, through close proximity and 
intercourse with the Puritan, very soon adopted some of the 
latter' s unlovable traits, and when Massachusetts Bay Colony 
framed such strict laws against the Baptists, the Quakers, and 
the Catholics, Plymouth was not far behind. 

In comparing the statute books of both colonies we find the 
very wording of these laws identical, the only difference being, 
that the Puritan laws antedate those of the Pilgrims by a few 
years, and that ultimately Plymouth showed greater mildness. 

As early as 1644 the General Court of Massachusetts "Ordered 
and agreed, that if any person or persons within the jurisdic- 
tion shall either openly condemne or oppose the baptizing of in- 
fants, or go about secretly to seduce others from the approbation 
or use thereof, or shall purposely depart the congregation at the 
administration of the ordinance . . . and shall appear to 
the Court willfully and obstinately to continue therein after due 
time and means of conviction, every such person or persons 
shall be sentenced to banishment." 

In 1646 we read as follows in the "Liberties of Massachusetts 
Colonic in New England: 

"Whereas there is a pernicious sect, commonly called Quakers 
lately arisen, who by word and writing have published and main- 
tained many dangerous and horrid tenets etc. . . for pre- 
vention thereof this Court doth Order and Enact, that every 
person or persons of the cursed sect of Quakers, who is not an 
inhabitant of, but found within this jurisdiction, shall be appre- 
hended (without warrant, where no magistrate is at hand) by 
any constable, commissioner or selectman, and conveyed from 
Constable to Constable, until they come before the next Magis- 
trate who shall commit the said person or persons to close 
Prison, there to remain without Baile, untill the next Court of 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 19 

Assistants, where they shall have a legall tryall by a special 
jury, and being convicted of being of the sect of the Quakers, shall 
be sentenced to Banishment upon Paine of Death etc." 

In 1647 the same "Liberties" say: 

"It is ordered and enacted by authority of this Court, that 
no Jesuit or Spiritual or Ecclesiastical person (as they are term- 
ed) ordained by the authority of the Pope, shall henceforth at 
any time repaire to or come within this jurisdiction. And if 
any person shall give just cause of suspicion, that he is one of 
such society or order, he shall be brought before the magistrates, 
and if he cannot free himself of such suspition, he shall be com- 
mitted to prison or bound over to the next Court of Assistants, 
to be tryed and proceeded with by Banishment or otherwise, as 
the Court shall see cause, and if any person so banished, be 
taken a second time within the jurisdiction, upon lawful tryall 
and conviction, he shall be put to death." 

"Provided this Law shall not extend to any such Jesuit, Spirit- 
ual or Ecclesiastical person, as shall be cast upon our shores by 
shipwreck or other accident, so as he continue no longer than 
till he may have opportunity of passage for his departure." 

The first, to whom the Puritans showed themselves in their 
true light, were the three original settlers mentioned before. 
William Blackstone, who, according to Mather, "was of a partic- 
ular humor, and would never join himself to any of our churches, 
giving as his reason for it: I came from England, because I did 
not like the Lord Bishops; but I cannot join with you, because 
I would not be under the Lord-Brethren,!' was little by little 
driven by these Lord-Brethren, to sell his land and to face the 
wilderness once more. He settled in Narraganset Bay, where 
he died in 1675. 

Thomas Walford, who lived quietly with his family at Misha- 
wum, was an Episcopalian, and incurred the odium of the 
fathers, because he would not conform to their way of thinking. 
He was fined forty shillings and "enjoyned he and his wife, to 
depart out of the limits of this patent, before the 20th day of 
October nexte (1632) under paine of confiscation of his goods." 



20 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

He went North, found a refuge and a welcome at Portsmouth, 
where grants of land were made to him, and where in due time 
he was chosen one of the selectmen of the town. 

The proceedings against Samuel Maverick could not be car. 
ried with such a high hand. He was a man of gentle birth, of 
good education and noted for his hospitality. In his mansion 
on Noddle's Island he had entertained Governor Winthrop when 
first landing in Boston Bay, in 1630, Sir Henry Vane, Lord 
Ley and other gentlemen of standing at home, who visited the 
Colony. He could therefore not be treated so summarily as 
Thomas Walford, who was only a blacksmith or one of the "com- 
mon people" as Winthrop says. However as he was "strong 
for the Lordly Prelatical power," he was soon given to feel that 
he was not persona grata, and after several political complica- 
tions thinking it best to escape the persecution of the "Lord- 
Brethren," he returned to Old England. All the facts and 
documents in relation to Maverick have been faithfully collect- 
ed by W. H. Sumner in his History of East Boston. 

The next trouble for the Colony arose through the advent of 
Roger Williams, the apostle of "soul liberty, young, godly and 
zealous, having precious gifts." His great and unchanged 
tenet was the freedom of conscience, a doctrine especially ab- 
horrent to the Puritan fathers. He denied in toto the notion 
of the Church's concern in civil affairs, which was the founda- 
tion of New England's polity, but his crowning and unpardon- 
able heresy was when he attacked the right of the Colonists to 
their land. They resolved to bear with him no longer. At the 
session of the General Court held in Boston in September, 1635, 
it was ordered "that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of 
this jurisdiction within six weeks now next ensuing." He set 
out for the territory of Narragansett, and there "founded the 
village of Providence." The sentence of banishment was not 
passed without reluctance, however, and Governor Winthrop 
remained his friend to the day of his death, while Governor 
Winslow, of Plymouth, "who had no hand in his expulsion, put a 
piece of gold in the hands of his wife, to relieve their necessities." 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 21 

Hardly were they well rid of Roger Williams, When Mrs. 
Anne Hutchinson and with her the Antinomian controversy ap- 
peared upon the scene. The name Antinomian was coined by 
Luther and applied to John Agricola and his adherents. As 
the derivation of the word implies, it means, against or above 
the law — the law of Moses in this case — but was nothing else 
than the revival of the old gnostic doctrine of salvation through 
grace or faith alone. Hence the endless discussions about 
"Covenant of Grace" and Covenant of Works." Mrs. Hutch- 
inson was a woman of high and subtle intellect, deeply imbued 
with the controversial spirit of the age. She stood at the head of 
a constantly growing party, largely composed of individuals who 
had arrived after the civil government of the Colony had been 
established, and who, following out the doctrines of strict Cal- 
vinism with logical precision, maintained that salvation was the 
fruit of grace and not of works. The conservative party, which 
consisted of the original settlers, who were content with the 
established order of things, readily conceived how such a doc- 
trine might be perverted by logical interpretation and religious 
standing made independent of moral character. 

Mrs. Hutchinson was supported in her rebellion against 
spiritual authority by Governor Vane, Rev. John Wheelwright 
and a majority of the people of Boston, but Winthrop, Dudley 
and nearly all the ministers were arrayed against her. The 
subject became one of supreme political importance. At the 
ensuing choice of the magistrates, the theological divisions 
played a principal part in the elections, and the triumph of the 
clergy was complete. Mrs. Hutchinson was summoned before 
the General Court (1638), denounced as "weakening the hands 
and the hearts of the people against the ministers," as being 
"like Roger Williams and worse," and Massachusetts, true to 
her theocratic system, banished the unfortunate Mrs. Hutchin- 
son under the most revolting circumstances, which it is difficult, 
if not impossible, to extenuate. After her expulsion the liberal 
minority was completely vanquished, and a system of terrorism 
with the clergy as leaders, was established. They preached 



22 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

not the fatherhood but the wrath of God, and they were fit and 
docile instruments to illustrate God's wrath upon earth. 

The assumed right of private interpretation of the Bible 
naturally led to innumerable differences of opinion, and as each 
reader of the "Word" claimed to be specially illuminated and 
divinely directed, sects and heresies grew up like mushrooms. 
No sooner had the Antinomian movement been crushed and 
stamped out, than the fertile soil of New England brought 
forth another sect; the Baptists or Anabaptists, who opposed in- 
fant baptism. Prompt action was taken by the watchful fathers, 
who at once passed the law of 1644 mentioned above. Among 
the victims of this enactment were Clark and Crandall, who 
were fined, Obadiah Holmes, "who was whipt for heresy," and 
Henry Dunster, president of Harvard College, who was ban- 
ished in the midst of winter with his sick wife and children. 

"Henry Dunster," Brooks Adams says, "was an uncommon 
man. Famed for piety in an age of fanaticism, learned, modest 
and brave, by the unremitting toil of thirteen years he raised 
Harvard from a school to the position which it has since held; 
though very poor and starving on a wretched and ill-paid pit- 
tance, he gave his beloved college one hundred acres of land at 
the moment of its sorest need." Still all this could not save 
him from the fanaticism of the lord-brethren, and exiled and 
broken-hearted he went to end his days in Plymouth Colony. 

Although at the outset public sentiment towards Baptists 
and Quakers was much the same in both Colonies, Plymouth 
adopted milder measures in the course of time, and, be it said, 
not to her detriment, for the Quakers were the most law abiding 
citizens in her jurisdiction. It is refreshing to find in the midst 
of all this bigotry, oppression and intolerance, one dissenting 
voice, bold enough to make itself heard, that of the noble Sir 
Richard Saltonstall, one of the original founders of the Colony 
who, in 1652 writes from England as follows to Wilson and 
Cotton, ministers in Boston: "It doth not a little grieve my 
spirit to hear, what sad things are reported daily of your tyranny 
and persecution in New England, as that you fine, whip and 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 23 

imprison men for their conscience. First, you compel such to 
come into your assembUes as you know will not join you in 
your worship, and, when they show their dislike thereof, or wit- 
ness against it, then you stir up your magistrates to punish 
them for such as you conceive, their public affronts. I hope, 
you do not assume to yourselves infallibility in judgment when 
the most learned of the Apostles confesseth he knew but in 
part, and saw but darkly as through a glass." 

But now the attention and energies of the lord-brethren were 
absorbed by a new influx of heretics, before whom Ritualists, 
Antinomians and Baptists faded into insignificance. The rise 
of the sect of Friends, derisively called Quakers, was one of 
the results of that fermentation of public opinion in England 
which Cromwell, for some unknown reason, allowed to go un- 
checked. It was a consequence of the moral war against the 
corruption and bigotry of the Puritans at home. The Quakers 
were irreproachable in their lives, meek and patient in suffer- 
ing, never returned evil for evil, advocated the utmost sim- 
plicity, and were outspoken against war, intemperance, slavery 
and all immorality. They were men of whom Cromwell said : 
"I cannot win them by gifts, honors, offices or places." Consider- 
ing the " Inner Light" their oracle of duty, as the only and all- 
sufficient authority for proclaiming the truth, they rejected all 
forms, all rituals, and opposed all ordained ministry. They 
denounced religious persecution, and advocated perfect freedom 
of opinion and expression for all mankind, recognizing in all 
creeds some mixture of truth. 

This was rank heresy from the Puritan point of view, and 
when the Quakers appeared in New England for the avowed 
purpose of breaking down this stronghold of bigotry, the 
Fathers were equal to the occasion, and met them with all their 
wonted fanaticism and cruelty. In fact, the law of 1646 had 
been passed before a single Quaker had set foot upon these 
shores ! When they finally did arrive, they were to " be forth- 
with committed to the house of correction, and at their entrance 
to be severely whipt, and by the master thereof to be kept con- 



24 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

stantly at work, and none suffered to converse or speak with 
them during their imprisonment." Masters of vessels were 
subject to a fine of ;^ioo for bringing a Quaker into any part of 
the jurisdiction, and required to give security to take him away 
again. A fine of 40 shilhngs for every hour was imposed for 
harboring Quakers, and in 1656 it was ordered that every Qua- 
ker coming into the jurisdiction after having once been ban- 
ished should " for the first offence suffer the loss of one ear, 
for the second offence the loss of the other, and for the third 
offence should have his tongue bored through with a hot 
iron." 

The Massachusetts commissioners soon wrote to the General 
Court of Rhode Island, remonstrating against the leniency of 
its policy towards these " cursed heretics." Here they were 
enjoying such a refuge as the early Puritans themselves had 
found in Holland. The reply of Governor Arnold contained a 
significant and valuable suggestion, which the magistrates of 
Massachusetts Bay whould have done well to accept. It had 
been his experience, that where the Quakers are "suffered to 
declare themselves freely, there they least desire to come, and 
that they are likely to gain more followers by the conceit of 
their patient sufferings, than by consent to their pernicious 
sayings." 

However brandings, whippings and cropping of ears had but 
little effect in keeping the Quakers out. Especially did they 
swarm to Massachusetts, as the hot-bed of bigotry and there- 
fore in the greatest need of their preachings and remonstran- 
ces. The cruelties inflicted upon them would seem incredible 
if not too well authenticated. Nicholas Upsall, a venerable 
and highly respected citizen, for showing some compassion for 
Quakers in prison, was himself thrown into the same prison, 
fined and banished, suffering the greatest hardships for his 
humanity. Sarah Gibbons, and Dorothy Waugh were impris- 
oned three days without food, then " whipped with a threefold 
knotted whip, tearing the flesh," and afterward banished. In 
September, 1658, Holden, Copeland, and Rouse, who had twice 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 25 

come back after banishment, each had the right ear cut off by 
the constable. The law compelling all persons to attend meet- 
ing under a penalty of five shilHngs, was rigidly enforced, and 
caused great distress among the Quakers. If they stayed 
away from the Puritan " Steeple-house " they would be fined, 
if they went there and the spirit moved them to utter a protest, 
they would again be fined ; if they chose to attend their own 
meeting, they would inevitably be fined. If driven to a perfect 
frenzy of fanaticism by his sufferings, he would revile his per- 
secutors, fine and imprisonment were his certain fate, supple- 
mented by the branding iron and the whipping post. 

The persecution reached its climax by the judicial murder of 
four persons ; but let us be just, it was done among much mur- 
muring and public protest. In the summer of 1659 Mary 
Dyer, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, three ex- 
iled Quakers, returned to Boston. They were tried, condemned, 
and in October the two men were hanged on Boston Common ; 
but Mary Dyer's sentence, at the intercession of her son, was 
commuted to banishment. She soon came back, however, and 
on the first of the following June was led to the gallows. Being 
offered her life on condition that she would go away and stay 
away, she replied : " Nay, I cannot, for in obedience to the 
will of the Lord I came, and in His will I will abide faithful to 
the death." The brand of that day's infamy will never disap- 
pear from the annals of the Puritan Commonwealth. 

In pronouncing sentence of death upon the Quakers in defi- 
ance of the law of England, and the patent from which all his 
authority was derived. Governor Endicott exceeded his authority 
and was guilty of the double crime of treason and murder. 
But reigning supreme and being himself clothed with the high- 
est power in the Colony, he escaped punishment, as he did for 
another offence in 1634, when, in a fit of fanaticism, he muti- 
lated the royal banner, by cutting out the Cross of St. George, 
because the Cross was an emblem of "popery." 

Endicott's next victim was William Leddra, who had been 
banished in 1657. He was offered his life on condition of 



26 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

going to England and not returning, to which he replied : " I 
have no business there ; I stand not in my own will, but in the 
will of the Lord ; to make you the promise I cannot," where- 
upon he was hanged. 

While Leddra's trial was still in progress, Wenlock Christi- 
son appeared before the court. At his trial he demanded to 
know if the court was bound by the law of England, and on 
receiving an affirmative reply, declared that there was no Eng- 
lish law for hanging Quakers, and appealed to England for pro- 
tection. Governor Endicott treated his demand with derision. 
He found it difficult, however, to get a court to agree to sen- 
tence Christison to death, and in spite of it pronounced the 
sentence. But it was destined never to be executed. A few 
days afterward the jailer opened the prison doors, and Wenlock 
Christison, with twenty-seven others, was set at liberty. The 
friends of the Quaker in England had prevailed upon Charles 
II. to order the prosecutions to cease in New England (1661). 
Samuel Shattock, a banished Quaker, was sent over by Charles 
with a letter to Governor Endicott, commanding that no more 
Quakers should be hanged and imprisoned in New England, 
but should be sent to England for trial. This ended the perse- 
cution, for on December 9, 1661, the court ordered all Quakers 
to be set at liberty. 

Among the reasons often urged by those who worshipped at 
the shrine of Puritanism, in defence of the pursuance of such 
cruel and inhuman tactics, are the incivility and the abusive 
language of the Quakers. 

Believing that they were doing God's work and fulfilling a 
mission, the Quakers naturally denounced their persecutors in 
language not exactly noted for its charity and delicacy. Min- 
isters were stigmatized as *' Baal's priests," "the seed of the 
serpent," "painted sepulchres," etc. But in extravagance of 
language the Puritans were a close match to the victims. The 
learned Cotton Mather, for instance, writes : " In Quakerism, 
the sink of all heresies, we see the vomit cast out in the by-past 
ages by whole kennels of seducers, licked up again for a new 
digestion." 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 27 

Massachusetts had to go through one more phase of fanati- 
cism, namely, that of witchcraft. This dekision, however, is 
too well known to make it necessary for us to enter into the 
details of it. The arbitrary act of Governor Phips, in creating 
a court for the trial of witches, the tortures and cruelties per- 
petrated upon the unfortunate victims, have been condemned 
by all fair-minded people, and have left a stain upon Massachu- 
setts which cannot be effaced. 

We have now seen that neither the Pilgrims nor the Puritans 
are the saints that some historians, orators and poets would 
have us believe. They were human, and very human, to quote 
the words of Terence : ''Homo sum et nil Jmmani aliemmi a me 
putoy The future scholars, who will rewrite history, will strip 
them of their halo of sanctity, which they have so long unde- 
servedly worn, and will present them to the world in all their 
narrowness, intolerance, hypocrisy and want of morality. Only 
careful reading of the early volumes of the original records of 
the Colony can give us a correct idea of what they were and 
what they did. 

Such was the Massachusetts of the Pilgrims and the Puritans. 
What has caused the tolerant spirit so prevalent in the edu- 
cated Massachusetts men of the last half century compared 
with their ancestors for 200 years } 

That they believed in God and had some fixed religious 
principles which they preserved from the saving remnants of 
Catholicity remaining with them cannot be denied. The great 
influx of emigration to Massachusetts during the last seventy 
years has largely changed the character of the New Englander, 
and has produced a different type of man. Under the Pilgrim 
and Puritan dispensation they had a criminal code, which made 
the attempt of any Catholic to live in Massachusetts and adhere 
to his faith a crime punishable by death, therefore it was not| 
to be expected that many Catholics found their way thither, 
yet we find many names of unmistakable Catholic origin. 

We do know that Father Druillettes came here in 1650 on a 
mission partly on business and partly political, and he was 



28 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

lodged in the house of Major-General Gibbons, probably situa- 
ted on Washington Street, near Adams Square, and that he 
said mass secretly ; we know also that many of the Acadians 
were scattered throughout Massachusetts ; that Cromwell and 
Charles sent many of the children of Catholics from Ireland, 
but these nearly all lost their faith and were swallowed up by 
the Puritans. Though they have left some traces of their in- 
fluences in Massachusetts, it was not until the closing years of 
the Eighteenth Century, when the French Revolution sent 
those learned and saintly men, Matignon and Cheverus, that 
any attempt was made to organize the Catholic Church and 
found a parish, which was the nucleus of the Diocese and Arch- 
diocese of Boston. 

The way had been prepared for them by the Rev. John 
Thayer, a convert, formerly a Congregational minister in 
Boston, who had been ordained in Paris and was assigned by 
Dr. Carroll, of Baltimore, to the Boston mission in 1790. His 
flock numbered but a few hundred and services were held in 
a small chapel on School Street, previously occupied by a 
Huguenot congregation. 

But from now on a more rapid growth of Catholicity may be 
noticed, and a wave of tolerance spreading over the land. Dur- 
ing the struggle for independence against England, the Catho- 
lics of the Colonies stood shoulder to shoulder with the Puritan : 
the only ally the Colonies had was France, a Catholic nation, 
and the names of such men as Charles Carroll, Dr. John Car- 
roll, Lafayette, Rochambeau, Kosciusko, etc., all of whom dis- 
tinguished themselves in military or civil life, went far towards 
abolishing many of the inborn prejudices against the "Papist." 

Washington was not slow in recognizing the merits of the 
Catholics, for while in the throes of the Revolutionary War he 
abolished the celebration of " Pope Day," of which we read in 
the " Boston Town Records," under date of November 5, 1772, 
as follows : 

"As the Commander-in-Chief has been apprised of a design 
formed for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 29 

of burning the effigy of the Pope, he cannot help expressing his 
surprise that there should be officers and soldiers in this army 
so void of common sense as not to see the impropriety of such 
a step at this juncture ; at a time when we are soliciting, and 
have really obtained, the friendship and alliance of the people 
of Canada, whom we ought to consider as brethren embarked 
in the same cause — the defence of the liberty of America — at 
this juncture and under such circumstances, to be insulting 
their religion is so monstrous as not to be suffered or excused : 
indeed, instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our 
duty to address public thanks to these our brethren, as to them 
we are indebted for every late happy success over the common 
enemy in Canada," etc. 

And after the struggle was over, he furthermore showed his 
appreciation of what the Catholics had done towards making 
the United States of America, when he replied to their address 
in such terms as these: "I hope ever to see America the fore- 
most nation in examples of justice and liberality, and I presume 
that your fellow-citizens will not forget the patriotic part which 
you took in the accomplishment of their revolution, and the es- 
tablishment of their Government, or the important assistance 
they received from the countries in which the Roman Catholic 
faith is professed. May the members of your society in America, 
animated alone by the pure spirit of Christianity, and still con- 
ducting themselves as the faithful subjects of our free Govern- 
ment, enjoy every temporal and spiritual felicity." 

Catholicity increased steadily in New England, not alone 
through immigration, but through conversions in the ranks of 
the Puritans themselves, who were deeply impressed with the 
learning, piety, virtue and refinement of these two ideal apostles 
Matignon and Cheverus. Very soon a larger church was needed 
and built on Franklin Street to which a number of Protestants 
contributed most generously, the list of subscribers being 
headed by John Adams, President of the United States. The 
new Church of the Holy Cross was dedicated by Bishop Carroll, 
of Baltimore, in 1803, and was for many years the only Catho- 
lic Church in Boston. 



30 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

In 1808 Pope Pius VII. made Boston an Episcopal See, em- 
bracing all the New England States, with Dr. Cheverus as the 
first Bishop. But even in this exalted position Bishop Chev- 
erus continued his personal active interest in the Abnaki Indians 
and the humblest of his parishioners. It is told, that once 
after a visit to a sick work woman, to whom he had given some 
firewood, he went to her yard one morning before daylight to 
prepare it for kindling. When the identity of this early laborer 
was discovered, remonstrances were naturally made, but he 
quietly declined aid or relief, and finished what he jokingly 
called his "job." A Unitarian clergyman writes of him: "Who 
among our religious teachers would solicit a comparison be- 
tween himself and the devoted Cheverus.^ This good man 
lived in the midst of us, devoting his days and nights and his 
whole heart to the service of a poor and uneducated congrega- 
tion. We saw him declining in a great degree the society of 
the cultured and refined, that he might be the friend of the 
ignorant and friendless, leaving the circles of polished life, which 
he would have adorned, for the meanest of hovels," etc. 

To the regret of his American friends of all creeds and per- 
suasions, he was recalled to France by the Pope and made 
Bishop of Montauban in 1823, created Archbishop of Bordeaux 
in 1826, and proclaimed Cardinal shortly before his death in 
1836. 

A worthy successor to this truly great man as second Bishop 
of Boston was found in the person of the Rev. Benedict Fen- 
wick, a member of the Society of Jesus, and belonging to one 
of the first Catholic families of Maryland, who had come over 
with Lord Baltimore. Of a resolute and determined character, 
he was destined to pilot the ever-increasing Church of New 
England through a period of storm and stress. 

When he came to Boston, in 1825, he found only two priests 
in the city and three in the whole diocese, while nine churches 
were in existence. He therefore opened a seminary on a small 
scale in his own residence, and ordained the Rev. James Fitton 
and the Rev. William Wiley, in 1827. 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 31 

In the same year he opened the first school for boys in con- 
nection with the Cathedral, of which the ecclesiastical students 
were the teachers. It was in this school that Archbishop 
Williams was taught the rudiments of Latin. Fully aware of 
the power of the press, Bishop Fenwick started the first Catho- 
lic paper in New England, under the title of The Jesuit. As a 
weekly paper, first issued in 1828, it went through several titles 
and phases, until it finally merged into The Pilot, which today 
enjoys not only a national, but an international reputation. 

Always on the alert and awake to the needs of his flock, the 
Bishop in 1832 summoned the first Sisters of Charity from 
Emmitsburg to Boston, for the purpose of founding a home for 
orphans and teaching Catholic girls in moderate circumstances. 
He also enlarged the Ursuline Academy, founded by Bishop 
Cheverus in 1820. It was transferred from its narrow quarters 
on Franklin Street to Ploughed Hill or Mount Benedict, so 
named in honor of the Bishop — in Charlestown, now Somer- 
ville, where it became famous as an educational institution, the 
majority of the pupils being daughters of New England Pro- 
testants. This quiet and retired place became in 1834 the 
scene of the most outrageous attack against poor, defenceless 
women that Massachusetts ever witnessed, and which will for- 
ever remain a blot upon her escutcheon. 

Bishop England and other writers have so graphically de- 
scribed the burning of the convent and the farce of the trial of 
the rioters that we can add nothing to what has been written. 
Bishop Fenwick showed his wisdom by asking for the pardon of 
the insignificant person who was convicted and upon whom they 
attempted to shift the responsibility for this outbreak of fanat- 
icism and intolerance. 

Bishop Fenwick's career came to a close in 1846, and he was 
buried at Holy Cross College at Worcester (now in the Spring- 
field Diocese), which he had established during his episcopacy. 

Succeeded by the Right Rev. John B. Fitzpatrick in 1846, 
we now come to events within the memory of those now living. 
We all know how the famine in Ireland caused the great exodus 



32 Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 

to the United States, and Massachusetts received her full share 
of this emigration. Unlearned though they might be, yet 
these immigrants were vigorous of soul and sound of body, with 
a strong and abiding faith, and to them andthe few hard-working 
and zealous priests who shared with them all the vicissitudes of 
life in a new country, we owe the marvellous growth of the 
Catholic Church in Massachusetts. 

During Bishop Fitzpatrick's episcopacy the so called Know- 
nothing Party came into power in this State, a series of perse- 
cutions following and also the troubles with the School Board. 
The wisdom and the good judgment of the Bishop were 
admirably displayed during these troublous times. He was a 
magnetic man, sociable in his nature, and during his administra- 
tion many converts, members of old Boston families, came into 
the Church. In January, 1 866, Father Williams was appointed 
coadjutor, but before the arrangements for his consecration 
could be completed. Bishop Fitzpatrick died, and Father 
Williams became Bishop Williams. 

We are all familiar with the life and work of our own beloved 
Archbishop, who lately celebrated his eightieth birthday. We 
are so near to him, that many fail to appreciate the great work 
he has accomplished in the Archdiosese. His well-known 
modesty deters us from expressing ourselves as fully as we 
might desire. We see all about us the churches, the convents^ 
the schools, the seminary and the charitable institutions, the 
monuments of his zeal and devotion during his busy life, and 
we behold the Massachusetts of Puritan and Pilgrim largely 
Catholic. When Archbishop Williams was elevated to the 
Archbishopric in 1875, the Catholic population of the Arch- 
diocese numbered about 275,000, today it numbers nearly 
700,000. In 1 866 there were only 1 1 2 churches, there are today 
210 churches; and instead of 120 priests for the whole State 
of Massachusetts, there are now 525. 

I think we may be justified in rejoicing, that from the 100 
Catholics in Boston in 1780, the little grain of mustard seed 
has grown into a mighty tree. The face of the grim old Puri- 



Pilgrim, Puritan and Papist in Massachusetts. 2i3 

tan Commonwealth is changed ; its habits, its manners, its 
customs have all undergone a wonderful revolution. 

We read in the " Chronicles of Massachusetts," that when 
Governor Winthrop made his first official call on the Governor 
of the Plymouth Colony, he passed through a place called Hue's 
Cross. He was so incensed at the mere mention of the symbol 
of man's redemption, that he ordered the word " Folly" to be 
substituted for Cross, and the place was called " Hue's Folly." 

What a change in our times ! We see the cross even on the 
Puritan Meeting House. The Puritan Fast-Day is no longer 
observed. On Palm Sunday members of Protestant churches 
may be seen carrying palms, and the Puritan festival of 
Thanksgiving holds a secondary place to the joyous Catholic 
Christmas. 

Parkman, philosophizing on what he termed the failure of 
the French Catholic missions in America, wrote, as though 
Protestantism in New England had triumphed over what he 
called hierarchical religion. Were he living and writing today, 
he would be obliged to revise his opinions, as he would see 
evidences all around him of the results of private judgment and 
of the dissidence of dissent prevailing in New England. He 
would find faith dead or dying among Protestants in Massachu- 
setts ; the orthodox Congregational State Church feebly strug- 
gling for existence, its parish school no more, and its principal 
Theological Seminary at Andover about to be abolished ; re- 
spect for authority lessening, and all men who think seriously, 
believing the only hope for the preservation of society and the 
maintenance of our Government to be in the authority, doc- 
trines and teachings of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
. PUBLICATIONS. 

No. 5. 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle 



BY 

Rev. ARTHUR T. CONNOLLY. 

Read at the Annual Meeting of this Society, 
June 3, 1903. 



PUBLISHED BY 

NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

BOSTON, MASS. 

J906 



NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
PUBLICATIONS. 

No. 5. 



Fr. Sebastian Raslr 



BY 



Rev. ARTHUR T. CONNOLLY. 

Read at the Annual Meeting of this Society, 
June 3, 1903. 



PUBLISHED BY 

NEW ENGLAND CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

BOSTON, MASS. 

1906 



F 15" 



Gift 
The Society 



Reverend Sebastian Rasle. 

The Martyr Missionary of the Abenaquis Indians* 

The history of the discovery and the colonization of 
the American Continent offers to the reader no page more 
touching and romantic than that which records the labors 
and the sufferings of the Jesuit missionaries. 

We can trace their footsteps along the rivers and 
through the forests of Canada, up through the great chain 
of lakes, down the Mississippi River, through the wilds of 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and the entire northwest. 
We discover them again in Louisiana and Missouri, and can 
follow them through Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and 
California. Every state in the Union must give testimony 
to the fact that they have been the vanguard of exploration 
and the apostles of peace and goodwill. 

Their heroic labors in evangelizing the Indians, and 
their increasing efforts in conciliating them in their anger 
at the outrages of their white brothers, must always merit 
the grateful praises and sincere gratitude of unbiased poster- 
ity. With the spirit of crusaders they ventured alone among 
the savages and labored with single-hearted zeal for their 
conversion. The labor and constancy with which they 
pursued their projects have never been surpassed. 

Generally beloved, they yet carried their lives in their 
hands, for wherever a quarrel arose between Christian 
settlers and the missionary's fierce Catechumens, whenever 
a tribe at war with another fell in with a tribe in alliance 
with the enemy, the life of the missionary was always the 
first to be sacrificed, and his martyrdom, according to the 
savage customs of the Indians, was generally accompanied 
by the utmost refinement of torture. 

In less than a century after Ignatius of Loyola, the 
great founder of the Company of Jesus, had sent his loyal 
and carefully selected followers to battle not with the 



4 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

sword but with the word, to preach to men and instruct 
children, to make Christians by preaching and teaching, 
the new as well as the old world was filled with monuments 
of Jesuit martyrs and their great struggles for the faith. 
This was the case not only in those portions discovered and 
settled by the Spaniards, but also in the more northern 
regions along the Atlantic coast, claimed to have been dis- 
covered by Cabot under the auspices of England, and after 
England had become Protestant. No page of history gives 
a grander picture of self-sacrificing -devotion and zeal for 
the conversion of the heathen than that which portrays the 
life and tragic death of the Reverend Sebastian Rasle, the 
Jesuit missionary to the Indian tribes at Norridgewock in 
the district of Maine. 

While the title of martyr missionary must forever re- 
main his, still he cannot be called the Apostle of the Xor- 
ridgewocks. Another Jesuit missionary, Father Gabriel 
Druiettes, had already won this title as far back as the year 
1646. In the year 1652, when he left the Norridgewocks 
to pass the remaining years of his life among the savages 
of the farther north, all or nearly all were Christians. 

Father Rasle was born in Franche-Compte, on the 4th 
of January in the year 1657, of devout and respectable 
parents. He evinced from his earliest boyhood a love for 
the ecclesiastical state and received the best education that 
experience and competent teachers could impart. When 
about eighteen years of age the heroic achievements in the 
interests of humanity and religion already achieved by the 
disciples of St. Ignatius attracted his attention. 

Impelled by the laudable ambition of emulating in his 
life the deeds of these champions of the faith, he applied 
for admission to the Society of Jesus. On the 25th of 
September in the year 1674 he entered upon his novitiate. 
During the next fifteen years the world knew little about 
him, for his time was spent in prayer and in study, and in 
teaching in the Jesuit college at Nimes. While the outer 
world knew little, his superiors had learned much. They 
saw that he already gave evidence of the possession of 
thcke special qualities which would fit him for the toil and 
perils of a missionary. 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 5 

In the year 1089 he was sent to Canada to devote his 
life to the work of evangelizing the Indians. Embarking 
at La Rochelle on the '23d of July in the year 1689, he ar- 
rived at Quebec on the 3d of October after a voyage of 
nearly three months. His first duty on his arrival was to 
learn the Indian language. The better to succeed in this 
anything but easy task, he went to live in a village of the 
Abenaquis nation about three miles from Quebec. By in- 
tercourse and frequent association with the savages he soon 
acquired not only a knowledge of Indian words and their 
signification, but, what was still more necessary, the idiomatic 
turns and arrangements which the Indians gave them. 
After five months of constant application he had composed 
a dictionary and a catechism which contained the principles 
and mysteries of the Catholic faith. In order that he 
might gain the confidence of the savages and win them to 
Jesus Christ, he found it necessary to conform to their 
manners and customs. This was not easj', as Father Rasle 
himself acknowledges, in a letter which he wrote to his 
brother many years after his settlement among them : 
" That which was most revolting to me when I commenced 
living with the Indians," says he, " was the necessity of 
taking my meals with them. Nothing could be more dis- 
gusting. After having filled their kettle with victuals, they 
placed it on to boil for about three-quarters of an hour, 
after which they take it off the fire and serve it upon dishes 
of bark, dividing it among all those who are in the cabin. 
Each one then eats his food as he would a piece of bread. 
This sight," he continues, "did not give me much appetite." 

It was among these people, who were esteemed to be 
less barbarous than all the rest of the Indians, that he 
passed his novitiate as a missionary. When he had spent 
about two years in the Abenaquis village near Quebec, he 
was recalled by his superiors and assigned to the mission 
among the Illinois savages. 

As each Indian nation had its own particular language, 
and as the Illinois tribes among whom he now was assigned 
spoke a different language from that of the Abenaquis, he 
found it necessary to spend three months in the study of a 
new Indian dialect before his departure from Quebec. At 



6 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

length, on the 13th of August in the year 1691, he embarked 
in a canoe for his journey of eight hundred leagues over 
lakes of vast extent and through trackless forests that 
swarmed with the fiercest barbarians. The great risks and 
sufferings that were inseparable from such a journey can 
scarcely be appreciated at the present day. On the great 
lakes storms often arose that surpassed in fury those that 
were met with on the ocean. Still greater perils were en- 
countered on the rivers, which in places ran with great 
rapidity. The light and fragile canoe flew at times through 
the seething waters like an arrow, and if it came in contact 
with the rocks, which in many places were just beneath the 
surface, it was instantly dashed into a thousand pieces. 

Often the frightful pangs of hunger were added to 
other sufferings, for the length and difticulty of such a voy- 
age did not permit the carrying of anything but a sack of 
corn. If game failed, days and often weeks of fasting en- 
sued, and the half-faraished voyagers were compelled to 
fight death from starvation by feeding upon berries and a 
species of plant called litchens. 

When about one-half of the journey to this new field 
of labor had been made, P^ather Rasle. realized that the 
season was too far advanced to proceed further. Knowing 
that the Huron Indians, whose country he had now reached, 
were ministered to by a brother missionary, he pushed for- 
ward to their village and awaited the coming of spring. 
Resuming his journey as soon as the season permitted, he 
passed safely through every danger, and after forty days 
reached the village of the Illinois. He labored among the 
savages of this nation for six long years and traveled with 
them in all their wanderings on rivers and through wild 
forests, from the ocean to the Mississippi River and from 
the Mississippi back again to the ocean. Hunger and almost 
insufferable fatigue were his ordinary companions, but his 
burning zeal for the salvation of his savage children enabled 
him to sustain all his miseries with patience and even with 
pleasure. In the year 1696 he returned to Quebec. About 
th's time the Abenaquis Indians, who lived in what is now 
part of the State of Maine, sent messages to the Jesuit 
Fathers at Quebec asking for a missionary. As Father 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 7 

Rasle already knew the customs and character of the 
Abenaquis Indians and spoke this language, he was assigned 
by his superiors to their village at Norridgewock, 

The site of his mission was a beautiful spot on the 
Kennebec River. "Here where nature itself seemed to 
invite the residence of man and lavish upon him all the 
goods which spring from fertility, and all the pleasure which 
conversation with the finest scenes of romantic solitude 
could afford, Father Rasle built his humble cabin." 

Quebec was distant a painful journey of several days 
and it was a journey of at least two days to the nearest 
English dwelling. The country around was a wilderness 
inhabited only by savages. Our missionary soon collected 
around him about two hundred Indians, all that then re- 
mained of the once flourishing mission of Father Druiettes. 
The rest had been killed in the various wars that had almost 
unceasingly been carried on between them and the English 
colonists, or had long since emigrated to Canada. Although 
the Indians had been for many years without the ministra- 
tion of a permanent missionary, he found that many of 
them were Christians. Soon after his arrival a neighboring 
tribe was converted and came to live at Norridgewock, and 
it was not long before it became a goodly sized Christian 
settlement. 

The following extract from a letter of Father Rasle 
gives a striking picture of a Jesuit missionary's daily life 
among the Indians: "None of my neophites," says he, 
" fail to repair twice in each day to the church early in the 
morning to hear Mass and in the evening to assist at prayers, 
which I offer up at sunset. As it is necessary to fix the 
imagination of these Indians, which is too easily distracted, 
I have composed some appropriate prayers for them to 
enable them to enter into the spirit of the august sacrifice 
of our altars. They chant them or else recite them in a 
loud voice during Mass. Besides the sermons which I 
deliver before them on Sundays and festival days, I scarcely 
pass a weekday without making a short exaltation to inspire 
them with a horror of those vices to which they are most 
addicted, or to strengthen them in the practice of some 
virtue. After Mass I teach catechism to the children and 



8 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

young persons, while a large number of aged people who 
are present assist and answer with perfect docility the 
questions which I put them. The rest of the morning, even 
to midday, is set apart for seeing those who wish to speak 
with me. They come to see me in crowds to make me a 
participator in their pains and inquietudes, or to communi- 
cate to me causes of complaint against their countrymen, 
or to consult me on their marriages or other affairs of im- 
portance. It is therefore necessary for me to instruct 
some, to console others, to reestablish peace in families at 
variance, to calm troubled consciences, to correct others by 
reprimands mingled with softness and charity; in fine, as 
far as it is possible, to render them all contented. After 
midday I visit the sick and go around the cabins of those 
who require more particular instructions. If they hold a 
council, which is often the case with these Indians, they 
depute one of the principal men of the assembly to ask me 
to assist in their deliberations. I accordingly repair to the 
place where the council is held. If I think that they are 
pursuing a wise course, I approve of it ; if, on the contrary'-, 
I have anything to say in opposition to their decision, I 
declare my sentiments, supporting them with weighty 
reasons, to which they conform. My advice always fixes 
their resolution. When the Indians repair to the seashore, 
where they pass some months in hunting the ducks, bus- 
tards, and other birds which are found there in large num- 
bers, they build on an island a church which they cover 
with bark, and near it they erect a little cabin for my resi- 
dence. I take care to transport thither a part of our 
ornaments, and the Service is performed with the same 
decency and the same crowds of people as at the village." 
Well could Father Rasle say that in the midst of such 
continued occupations one could scarcely realize the rapidity 
with which day passed day. As we see from his own words, 
his labors were not wholly confined to the spiritual works 
of his ministry. Besides acting as an umpire in settling 
their little difficulties, as a doctor when ministering to their 
wants when sick, he was, by his very position, called upon 
to be their councilor in nearly every matter of a temporal 
nature. 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. q 

Almost from the day of his arrival in their midst his 
Indian children looked to him for advice at the council-fire 
in the policy and arrangements for war not less than for 
edification in the principles of the religion of peace. It 
was this one circumstance, perhaps, more than all others 
which finally drew upon him the persecution and bitter 
hatred that finally culminated in his cruel murder and the 
slaughter of his devoted Indian flock. The territory of 
Norridgewock, as well as all that portion included in what 
was called Acadia, was disputed ground for years between 
the French and the English. Both countries laid claim to 
this territory by right of discovery, and each on the strength 
of such discovery granted charters conveying to those 
chartered vast tracts of land and exclusive rights. These 
charters were granted sometimes to companies, sometimes 
to single persons, and at others to the colonists themselves. 
Most of them preceded the foundation of the colonies to 
which they referred. So great was the disregard for the 
laying down of boundaries that the same district was often 
covered by two or more grants made by the same pro- 
prietors to different individuals. While much was said in 
such charters about rights, little or no regard was paid to 
the prior rights of the Indians in the extensive grants made 
directly or indirectly to the colonists. The colonists were 
subject to the same blinding influence of selfishness that 
affects other men, and to this we are to ascribe their deter- 
mination, either by fair or foul means, to drive the Indians 
from lands which they had obtained through a royal charter 
and hence considered and called their own. 

No one who reads history attentively can deny that in 
the early years of the colonization of America mere cupidity 
tempted many to these shores for the sole object of en- 
riching themselves by all practicable means however un- 
justifiable, and often by overreaching the poor ignorant 
Indian. The settlers in many cases defrauded them of their 
land, circumscribed them in their hunting ground, and by 
the erection of mills and dams upon their rivers put a stop 
to the supply of fish, which contributed materially to their 
sustenance. 

Nearly all royal charters granted either by France or 



10 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

England stipulated that the grantees should be mindful of 
the spiritual condition of the Aborigines and labor for their 
conversion to the Christian faith. The charter obtained by 
the Plymouth Colony of Charles I., in 1629, says expressly 
that the colonists were clothed with corporate powers, so 
as to " win and incite the natives of the country to the 
knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour 
of mankind and the Christian faith, which in our royal in- 
tention and the adventurers' free profession is the principal 
end of the plantation."^ England, at the period of which 
I write, was intensely Protestant, while France held with 
equal tenacity to the teachings of the Catholic religion. 
So great was the bitterness and animosity engendered 
among nations by the so-called Reformation that religious 
intolerance existed not only throughout Europe, but was 
borne across the Atlantic with every ship-load of adventurers 
or would-be colonists. 

England hated and persecuted all who professed and 
abetted the diffusion of the Catholic faith, while France 
showed the same intolerant spirit toward all who followed 
the leadership of Martin Luther. At one time it was made 
a capital offence for Protestants to settle in New France, 
^^ and in New England they retaliated by enacting a law in 

Massachusetts that if a Roman Catholic priest found his 
way into the colony after once having been turned out, he 
should be hanged. While, as I have stated, the royal charters 
both of England and France enjoined the spread of the 
Gospel among the Indians, the data that history furnishes 
gives unmistakable evidence that such recommendations 
were in many instances totally ignored. While it must be 
admitted that the commercial spirit and an insatiable lust 
for gain was to a greater or lesser extent the impelling 
motive that governed both English and French in their 
endeavors to colonize the New World, the French seemed 
to have kept the spirit, if not the letter, of the recommenda- 
tions relating to the conversion of the Indians more sacredly 
than the English. 

In every colony that France established we find a 
missionary assigned to teach the truth of Christianity to the 
Indians. The French company for trading to Canada 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. ii 

were so impressed with the duty of providing instruction 
and religion for the Indians among whom they were going 
to place settlers, that they bound themselves by a solemn 
contract to maintain missionaries for the conversion of the 
savages. 

" The principal design of French settlements in Canada," 
says a Protestant writer, " was evidently to propagate the 
Christian religion. Not only did this company for trading, 
as well as many others, bind themselves, but they actually 
lived up to the contract and sent the agents whom the 
Catholic church always provides for such labors." " The 
early history of Canada teems with instances of the purest 
religious fortitude, zeal, and heroism ; of young and delicate 
females relinquishing the comforts of civilization to perform 
the most menial office towards the sick, to dispense at once 
the blessings of medical aid to the body and of religious 
instruction to the soul of the benighted and wandering 
savage." " Without deviating from the calm, philosophical 
demeanor of religion of the present day," says another 
Protestant writer, "it is doubtful whether any pious persons 
could be found willing to undergo the fatigues, uncertainty, 
and personal danger experienced by the first missionaries of 
both sexes in New France." The efforts of the Jesuit 
missionaries for the conversion and instruction of the 
savages, their universal kindness and benevolence wherever 
they succeeded in establishing themselves, captured and 
won forever the friendship of the Indians for the Fi'ench. 

Let us now see how the English acted towards the 
Indians. " For men professing to frame their daily life by 
the maxims of the New Testament, it may be affirmed 
without exaggeration," says Marshall, " that no race of men 
since the gospel was first preached on earth have ever 
violated its Spirit with such remorseless consistency as the 
English Puritans." 

The Massachusetts charter sets forth " to win and in- 
cite the natives of that country to the knowledge and 
obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, 
and the Christian 'faith, is the principal end of the planta- 
tion." The very seal of the colony had for its device the 
figure of an Indian, with the words of the Macedonian 



12 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

entreaty, " Come over and help us." While such was the 
end for which the charter was granted, what was done for 
Christianizing the Indian? Absolutely nothing for many 
years, and only when the Massachusetts legislature, moved 
by the complaints of the Crown, passed an act in 1646 for 
the encouragement of Christian missions among the Indians. 
The charter of Massachusetts was granted in the year 1629, 
and it was not until the year 1646, seventeen years after- 
wards, that the colonists of Massachusetts Bay took any action 
towards the fulfillment of the very end for which the charter 
was granted them. Their neighbors and fellow countrymen 
of Plymouth Colony had been already twenty-six years in 
New England, and, as far as I can discover, had made no 
attempt at converting the Indians until the same date when 
John Elliott, favorably known as the " Apostle of the In- 
dians in New England," began his work as a missionary. 
During these years the colonists of Massachusetts founded 
Harvard College, 1638. They established an Iron Works 
Company for the manufacturing, possibly, of swords and 
guns, as well as pruning-hooks and plowshares. (Felt, 
Salem, p. 167.) They made voyages to sell captive Indians 
into slavery, and came back with cargoes of cotton, tobacco, 
salt and negroes, and this as early as 1637 (Felt, p. 109), 
(Hutchinson I., 26 note), that is, in eight years after a 
charter had been granted them. 

Polemical theology in the schools, manufactures, trade, 
and traffic in luxuries as well as necessaries, in "cheese, wine, 
oil, and strong- water " (Felt, p. 62), in " slaves and souls of 
men" (Felt, Ipswich, pp. 119, 20), all these were attended 
to before any move was made toward teaching the heathen 
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The so-called God-fearing 
Puritan, while filling his pockets with gold from the sale of 
human flesh, tickling his palate with " cheese, wine, oil, 
and strong-water, and going to taverns to hear sermons, 
found no time for winning and inciting the poor red men, 
that Mather and others denominated as dogs, caitiffs, mis- 
creants, and hell-hounds, to the knowledge and obedience 
of the only true God and Saviour of mankind. . . . (T. W. 
Coit, p. 401). While the French settlers in Canada and 
throughout the district called Acadia in most instances seem 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 13 

to have treated the Indians kindly, living peaceably with 
them, and in many cases strengthening their friendship by 
even intermarrying with them, we find just the opposite to 
be the case with the English of the Massachusetts Bay and 
Plymouth Colony. 

That the Indians were frequently robbed of their lands 
by the English, I think that few, if any, at the present day 
can deny. Chalmers in his annals (p. 154), while not ab- 
solutely denying that the Indians were compensated for the 
soil, says plainly that proof of the fact has never been made 
out. 

These are his words : " Yet it does not appear that 
any compensation was given to the natives when possession 
was taken of their country by a people who soon overspread 
the land and unjustly deemed every exertion in its defense 
an act of rebellion against their laws." Neal seems to hold 
the same opinion (Neal's New England, p. 155), Cotton 
Mather, in his Magnalia, asserts that the lands were paid for. 
Neal, commenting on Mather's assertion, says, " If the Doc- 
tor's allegations are true." There is nothing to sustain the 
allegations in Neal's view, and those allegations are so sus- 
picious that they must be alloyed with a base " if." Roger 
William's opinion about the charter, where be maintained 
that it was not sufficient to entitle settlers to the soil, 
brought upon him the enmity and finally the decree of 
banishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This looks 
as if a different doctrine was prevalent in his day. Felt, in 
his annals of Salem (p. 17), states as much when he says 
Mr. William's doctrine was the occasion of much contro- 
versy both at Plymouth and at Salem. Drake, in his old 
Indian Chronicles (p. 155), says: "These Indian places 
Micham, now Charleston, Matapun, now Dorchester, and 
Shawmut, now Boston, are intruded into and possessed by 
Englishmen, whose descendants to this day hold them with 
as much right as another people would who should come 
now and crowd them out, and whose manners and occupa- 
tions might be as different from theirs as those of their 
ancestors were from those of the Indians." 

For fifty years the inhabitants of Salem paid nothing 
to the Indians on whose land they settled, and it was only 



14 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

when they heard of Penn's purchase that they purchased 
their lands of such Indians as they could find. Well 
does J. W. Coit in his review of the Puritans ask, Could 
these people, who were seventeen years long unable to 
recollect the " principal end " of their emigration, the con- 
version of the natives, twenty-six years long heedless, even 
in the Indians' eye, of the gospel's value (Hutchinson I, 
150), and fifty years long unable to recollect their debt 
for the soil they trod upon, have cared overmuch for 
Indian claims or for Indian rights, for Indian bodies or for 
Indian souls? 

Unlike the French, who in most instances acted 
humanely and kindly towards the Indians, the English 
treated them with excessive cruelly. No one who reads 
the history of the Pequod War, where a whole nation was 
ruthlessly murdered, and the sad fate of the heroic and 
truly noble King Philip, can absolve Englishmen from the 
crime of cruelty. Drake, in commenting on an incident of 
these wars, says their cruelty to the Indian was like to the 
acts of the most cruel pirate. " Pirates," he says, " never 
were guilty of a bloodier deed than the taking of thirty 
Indians out in a boat, murdering them in cold blood, and 
then throwing their bodies overboard to be eaten by mon- 
sters of the deep." Yet such was a Puritan revel and a 
Puritan historian is merry over it, speaking of the boat 
that took them as Charon's ferryboat (B. of Indians, Drake 
B. II, p. 106). 

Puritanism in moments of candor is shocked by the 
treatment of the aborigines. " Though the first planters 
of New England," says Dr. Trumbull, " were men of emi- 
nent piety and strict morals, yet, like other good men, they 
were subject to misconception and the influence of passion. 
Their beheading sachems whom they took in war, killing 
the male captives and enslaving the women and children 
of the Pequots after it was finished, was treating them with 
a severity which on the benevolent principles of Christianity 
it will be difficult ever to justify. The executing of all 
those as murderers who were active in killing any of the 
English people [when, as he admits, they did it in war and 
under orders from their native princes], and obliging all 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. • 15 

the Indian nations to bring in such persons, or their heads, 
was an act of severity unpractised at this day by civilized 
and Christian nations. The decapitation of their enemies 
and the setting of their heads upon poles was a kind of 
barbarous triumph too nearly symbolizing with the exam- 
ples of uncivilized and pagan nations." (Trumbull's Conn. 
I., 15.) 

The policy pursued by the French won for them the 
deepest gratitude and strongest attachment of the Indians, 
while that pursued by the English only aroused their dis- 
like and distrust. Whenever trouble arose between France 
and England their respective colonists in the New World 
espoused the cause of their country, and the Indians out of 
gratitude for the kindly treatment were always found on 
the side of the French. This only embittered the more 
English hatred of the French and Indian alike. One of the 
strongest ties that bound the Indians to the French was 
that of religion. The English clearly realized that as long 
as this bond remained intact, there was little, if any, hope 
of dissolving the friendship. 

The chief factor in keeping the bond intact was the 
Jesuit missionary. He was then, more than all others, the 
object of English suspicion and dislike. Frequently the 
English had sought to induce the Indians, by promises of 
the most tempting nature, to send their Jesuit missionaries 
back to Quebec and accept their religious teachers, but they 
always refused, saying in reply : " You are too late in under- 
taking to instruct us in the prayer after all the many years 
we have known you. The Frenchmen were wiser than you. 
As soon as we knew him he taught us how to pray to God 
properly, and now we pray better than you." The very 
position which the Catholic missionary held, the dependence 
of the savages upon his advice and counsel in all matters, 
either concerning their relations with their white brothers 
or in spiritual matters, placed him in a trying position. 

From the neighboring English nothing but hatred, 
suspicion, and acts of hostility could be expected ; from the 
French no assistance except on conditions often repugnant 
to him as a priest, and only endurable on the ground of 
national feeling. When Father Rasle was enjoying the 



i6 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

triumph of his zeal at Norridgewock, war broke out anew 
between the French and the English. 

At this time, the year 1703, Governor Dudley was 
the representative of the English Crown in Massachusetts, 
and he paid a visit to the Indians of the district of Maine 
and sought to induce them to remain neutral. At the date 
of his visit it appears that the Indians were not aware of 
the fact that war had already been declared. The Governor 
represented to them that the object of his coming was to 
visit them as the commissioner of the great and victorious 
Queen of England. He assured them that he came to visit 
them as his friends and brethren, and to reconcile whatever 
differences had happened since the last treaty. Massa- 
chusetts claimed all Maine as English territory and the 
Abenaquis as subjects; but in sending her subjects to settle 
upon the Kennebec and in all other places, she paid no 
regard to the Indian title and made no attempt to j^urchase 
any portion of their lands. 

Frequently the Abenaquis had resented this intrusion 
by killing the cattle, and at times burning the houses of the 
English settlers. Treaties of peace had frequently been 
made by both English and Indians before, and in nearly 
every instance it was just as at present, when it was for the 
interest of the English more than for charity towards the 
Indians. Rasle had accompanied the Indians on this occa- 
sion to the place of the conference, but evidently did not 
intend to be present at the meeting, as he states that it was 
only by accident that he found himself in the presence of 
the Governor. As soon as his presence was noted the 
Governor led him apart and prayed him not to lead the 
savages to make war upon the English. Rasle replied that 
his religion and his character engaged him to give them 
only counsels of peace. The result of the conference was 
that the Indians renewed their treaty of peace with the 
English, but clearly stated that if war broke out between 
the French and English they would stand by the French 
and aid them. 

On the return of Rasle and his Indians to Norridge- 
wock they learned that war had already been proclaimed 
by the French and English, and they were urged by the 



Fr, Sebastian Rasle. 17 

Covernorof Canada to join the Frenchmen in their struggle. 
Governor Dudley realized that the Indians would join, as 
they had assured him. The French now carried the war 
into the enemy's country. In retaliation frequent irrup- 
tions were made by the French and Indians into the Eng- 
lish settlements. It is on record in Kasle's own words, 
"that he exhorted his Christian Indians on their departure 
for war to maintain the same interest in their religion as if 
they were at home, to observe carefully the laws of war, to 
practice no cruelty, to kill no one except in the heat of 
battle, and to treat their prisoners humanely." So difficult, 
however, was it at that time for the English to believe that 
he gave any advice other than that of unsparing ferocity, 
that they resolved to take his life, and, to hasten the accom- 
plishment of this design, set a price on his head and offered 
a bounty of forty pounds for every Indian scalp. In the 
winter of 1705, Colonel Hilton was sent with two hundred 
and seventy men, and provisions for twenty days, to Nor- 
ridgewock for the sole purpose of surprising the Indians 
and capturing Father Rasle dead or alive. When he 
reached Norridgewock he found the village deserted. The 
object of the expedition was unfulfilled, but before leaving, 
as if to show the Indians the fate that they would have met 
had they been present, and their missionary that he was the 
chief object of their coming, he ruthlessly burned all the 
Indian wigwams, and after sacrilegiously profaning the 
church, left it a smoking heap of ruins. 

During the next eight years history furnishes nothing 
in relation to Father Rasle. As we know, however, that 
the war between France and England continued to be 
waged with unabated animosity, we can easily picture to 
ourselves his great trials and sufferings as he was pursued 
from place to place like a hunted beast. However trying 
his position, there was one ray of sunshine that ever made 
the darkest days of these years bearable ; it was the con- 
sciousness that his poor Indian children loved him and held 
tenaciously to the faith that he had taught them. At 
length the strife between France and England was brought 
to a stop in the year 1713, through the treaty of Utrectht. 
By this treaty France ceded to England Nova Scotia or 



i8 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

Acadia, with its ancient limits and the town of Port Royal. 
Governor Dudley, on behalf of the English Queen, met 
delegates from the various Indian tribes at Portsmouth, on 
the 11th of July, 1713. After stating that peace had been 
made between the King of France and the Queen of Great 
Britain, the Governor told the Indians that the King of 
France had ceded Acadia and Port Royal to the English 
Queen. The answer made by the Indian delegates shows 
conclusively that in any or all treaties made between 
France and England they, the aborigines, disclaimed any 
right on the part of either nation to cede that which was 
theirs by prior and undoubted title. " The King of France," 
said the Indian delegate, " may give your Queen what he 
pleases, as for me, I have my land which the Great Spirit 
has given me to live upon. While there shall be one child 
of my nation upon it he will fight to keep it." 

By this answer the Indians made it clear that, when 
they signed the treaty of 1713, they did not thereby cede 
or sign away their rights to the lands that they always 
maintained were theirs by every right, human and divine. 
Peace being ratified, the Norridgewocks settled down in 
their ruined village and made preparations for the recon- 
struction of their church, destroyed by the incursion of 
Colonel Hilton in the year 1705. As they now were once 
again at peace with the English of the Massachusetts Bay, 
and counting much on the many protestations of friendship 
that the governor had made them, they sent messengers to 
Boston asking that workmen might be sent them. They 
agreed at the same time to pay liberally for such service. 
The governor received their messengers kindly and offered 
to build their church at his own expense, provided they 
would agree to send their French priest. Father Rasle, back 
to Canada and accept the services of a Protestant minister. 
The Indians, as on all former occasions when such a propo- 
sition was made them, refused to make such an agreement, 
saying that, although the English had known them for a 
long time, they had never spoken to them of prayer or the 
Great Spirit. " They saw," they said, " my furs, my skins 
of the beaver and the elk, and it was about these only 
that they thought. These they sought with the greatest 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 19 

eagerness, so that I was not able to furnish them enough. 
And when I carried them a large quantity I was their great 
friend, but no further. On the contrary, one day I missed 
my route, and in my wanderings reached Quebec, near a 
village of Algonquins where the 'Black Robes' were teach- 
ing. One came to see me. My canoe was loaded with furs, 
but the French ' Black Robe ' scarcely deigned to look at 
them. He spoke to me at once of the Great Spirit, of 
paradise, of hell, of prayer, which is the only way to reach 
heaven. I heard him with pleasure, asked him to instruct 
me. I demanded baptism and received it. I hold to the 
prayer of the French ; I agree to it, and I shall be faithful 
to it even till the earth is burnt and destroyed. Keep your 
workmen, your gold, and your minister ; I will not speak 
to you more of them. I will ask the French Governor, my 
father, to send them to me." It has been asserted that, 
chagrined and even displeased as Governor Dudley must 
have been at this spirited refusal to accept his offer, " work- 
men were sent from Boston, who rebuilt the church in a 
manner perfectly satisfactory to the Indians and their priest." 
This is not true, for Father Rasle himself asserts that, 
failing to secure assistance in Boston, they applied to the 
Governor of Canada, and he sent workmen to rebuild it. 

Peace reigned once more in the little village of Nor- 
ridgewock, and our missionary consecrated anew his life to 
the labor of saving the souls of his savage children, while 
the Indians, deeply sensible to all the proofs of affection 
that he had given them, loved him as a tender father and 
remained docile to his teaching. The treaty of peace which 
the English made in 1713 was not, however, to be of long 
standing, for the natives saw with alarm the gradual but 
marked encroachments of the English settlers on their hunt- 
ing grounds, and they were often driven to remonstrate and 
seek revenge by the unscrupulous conduct of adventurers 
who thought it no sin to cheat an Indian. 

George the First succeeded Queen Anne on the Eng- 
lish throne in 1714, and in the autumn of 1714 Colonel 
Samuel Shute came to Boston as governor of Massachusetts. 
Urged by the increasing disturbances in the district of 
Maine, he invited the Indians to attend a mutual council, 



20 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

which was held at Arrowsick Island, at the mouth of the 
Kennebec River, on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of August, in 
the year 1717. Father Rasle accompanied his Indians, but 
was not present at any of the meetings. As at the council 
held in 1713, the Indians were reminded that they were the 
subjects of the English nation. The Indians, on their side, 
renewed their complaints against those who were unjustly 
appropriating their lands and goading them to desperation 
by their acts of injustice and crueltj^ The same honeyed 
promises were made to the poor Indians, and after all had 
drunk the health of the King, a new treaty of peace was 
drawn up and signed. Hoping to shake the constancy of 
the Norridgewocks in the faith of the Catholic church, and 
therebj^ lessen and destroy the influence of Father Rasle 
over his Christian Indians, Qovernor Shute brought with 
him from Boston the Reverend Mr. Baxter, a Protestant 
minister. He told the Indians that he would gladly have 
them of the same religion as he professed, and presented 
them with the Bible written in both the Indian and English 
language. 

Like all former attempts of the same nature, this new 
attempt was equally unsuccessful, for the Indians declined 
the acceptance of either his Bible or his minister. This en- 
deavor on the part of the English to win over to Protestant- 
ism the Christian Indians whom he had labored for so many 
years to evangelize in the faith of the only true church greatly 
troubled Father Rasle. He justly resented the proselytiz- 
ing attempts of this minister and wrote him a letter in 
which he stated, that while his Indian children believed in 
the truths of the Catholic religion, they were not able to 
defend it, and that he, himself, was ready to defend their 
belief for them. 

One or more letters were exchanged by the minister 
and Father Rasle, and after a fruitless attempt had been 
made by the minister to induce the Indian children by 
flattery and gifts to attend a school that he opened, he 
abandoned the contest. In the treaty made at Arrowsick 
Island, the English Governor had promised the Indians 
trading-houses and locksmiths, but time passed and these 
promises were not kept. The English settlers growing 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 21 

more and more numerous grew at the same time bolder and 
bolder in their appropriation of the lands of the Indians and 
in their acts of injustice. It was only the influence of 
Father Rasle over the Indians that had kept them from 
more frequent reprisals for such outrages. This is evident 
from complaining letters addressed by him to the Governor 
of Massachusetts communicating his views on what he con- 
sidered the aggressions upon Indian property. He certainly 
knew that a contest between his poor Indians and the 
mailed hand of the Massachusetts Bay Colony could only 
result in their total destruction and ruin. Despite his in- 
fluence, he could not always control the fiery spirits of the 
savages when aroused by unjust actions that they judged 
beyond the limit of enduring. In the year 1721 two acts 
of this nature roused the Indians to such indignation that 
they resolved to have recourse to arms and drive the Eng- 
lish from their midst. The first of these was the seizure 
and carrying off to Boston in captivity the younger Castine, 
the son of Baron Castine by an Indian wife. The other 
and still more reprehensible act was the attempted seizure 
of Father Rasle, their much-loved missionary. 

The hatred of the English had been so intense against 
the Jesuit Missionary, and the consciousness that while he 
lived he would continue to act as a barrier to their unjust 
designs of extending themselves over the lands of the 
Abenaquis, and thus become masters of the whole country, 
that they passed a resolve in the general court to accom- 
plish his ruin. Col. Thos. Westbrooke was commis- 
sioned to proceed with a party of soldiers to the Indian 
settlement and seize the person of Rasle. On the 22d of 
January, according to Rasle's own account, Westbrooke 
set forth on the expedition. " There were with me at 
the village," says Father Rasle, " only a small number of 
old men and infirm persons, while the rest of the Indians 
were at the hunting-grounds. The opportunity^ seemed to 
them a favorable one to surprise me, and with this view 
they sent out a detachment of two hundred men. 

" Two young Abenaquis who were hunting along the 
seashore learned that the English had entered the river, and 
they immediately hastened in that direction to watch their 



22 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

course. Having perceived them at ten leagues distance 
from the village, they outstripped them in traversing the 
country to give me warning and to cause the old men, 
the women, and children to retire in haste. 

" I had barely time to consume the consecrated Host, to 
pack the sacred vessels in a little chest and hide myself in 
the woods. It was towards evening that the English 
reached the village. Not finding me, they came again the 
following morning and searched the woods quite close 
to where I was concealed. They were scarcely a gun- 
shot distant when we perceived them and all that I could 
do was to hide myself with precipitation in the depths of 
the forest. As I had not time to take my snowshoes and 
was still weak from a fall in which, some years before, my leg 
and thigh were broken, it was not possible for me to fly 
very far. The only thing that I could do was to hide 
myself behind a tree. They went immediately to exam- 
ine the different paths worn by the Indians when they went 
to collect wood, and approached to within eight paces of 
the tree which concealed me. From this spot it would 
seem as if they must inevitably discover me, for the 
trees were stripped of their leaves; but, as if they had 
been restrained by an invisible hand, they immediately 
retraced their steps and repaired again to the village- 
They pillaged my church and humble dwelling and thus 
almost reduced me to death. I nearly died of famine and 
exhaustion in the midst of the woods before my friends in 
Quebec heard of my sad plight and sent me some 
provisions." 

On the occasion of this attempt against the life of 
Rasle, the soldiers, while pillaging his humble home, dis- 
covered and carried away the small box containing his 
letters from the Governor of Canada and his precious dic- 
tionary of the Abenaquis language. His Indians, on their 
return from the hunting grounds, clearly saw that all hope 
of effecting anything through pacific negotiations was passed, 
and having planted their fields, resolved to destroy the 
habitations which the English had built, and remove far 
from them the unjust and troublesome guests, who were 
encroaching more and more upon their lands and planning 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 23 

their total ruin. Summoning to their aid all the tribes of 
the Abenaquis nation, they sang their war song and bade 
defiance to their enemies. When all was in readiness they 
proceeded to the mouth of the Kennebec, seized three small 
vessels belonging to the English and destroyed some 
small buildings, and then continuing up the river plundered 
and burnt the new houses which had been built. All ac- 
counts agree that in the beginning of the war the Indians 
abstained from slaughter and violence towards the inhabi- 
tants, even permitting them to return to their people, with 
the exception of five whom they retained as hostages until 
their countrymen who were in prison at Boston were given 
up. Penh allow, commenting on the condition of affairs at 
this particular period, says : " The country at this time was 
in a surprising ferment and generally disposed to a war, but 
the governor and council could not readily come into it." 
' Some," he continues, " were not satisfied on the lawfulness 
of it at the time, for although they believed the Indians to 
be very criminal in many respects, yet were of the opinion 
that the English had not so punctually observed the promises 
made to them of trading houses for the benefit of commerce 
and traffic, and for the preventing of frauds, too common 
in the private dealings of the English with them. Another 
grand abuse," he also states, "was the selling of strong 
drink to them, which occasioned much quarreling and sin 
and the loss of many lives, to the great scandal of religion 
and reproach of the country." (Indian Wars, pp. 88, 89.) 

Governor Shute undoubtedly felt that the Indians had 
many and serious grounds for complaint, and in his recom- 
mendations to the general assembly he sought to remedy 
them, but was bitterly opposed. Yielding at last to what 
appeared to be the popular demand, he issued on the 25th 
of July, in the year 1722, a formal proclamation of war 
against the eastern Indians. 

Father Rasle was now exposed to greater danger than 
ever. He had been proclaimed an outlaw, and a price 
varying from one hundred to a thousand pounds had been 
put upon his head. His Indian children, realizing to what 
great dangers he was exposed, proposed that they should 
conduct him farther into the country, on the side towards 



24 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

Quebec, where he would be protected from the perils by 
which his life was menaced. His only answer was that 
their salvation was dearer to him than life, and since God 
had committed them to his care he would share their lot, 
happy if permitted to sacrifice himself for them. This 
sincere and honest aspiration of his priestly heart he was 
destined soon to enjoy. 

On the 23d of August, 1724, eleven hundred men, 
partly English amd partly pagan Indians, suddenly announced 
their presence in the little village by riddling the Indian 
cabins with a volley of musketry. There were only about 
fifty warriors present at the time, and these hurriedly seized 
their guns, not to defend the place against the enemy already 
in it, but to check their advance and thus cover the flight 
of the women, the aged, and the children. Father Rasle, 
hearing the clamor and knowing well that he was the chief 
object of the attack, fearlessly rushed forward, hoping 
thereby to save the lives of his devoted flock by the sacrifice 
of his own. His hope was realized, for as soon as he was 
seen advancing a great shout arose, and a volley of shot 
riddled his poor body, felling him to the ground at the very 
foot of the cross that he had erected in the centre of the 
village. Seven Indians, who surrounded him and who 
exposed their lives to preserve that of their Father, were 
killed at his side. 

His inhuman and worse than barbarous murderers then 
^nangled his body, scalped him, broke his skull in several 
places, and filled his mouth and eyes with dirt. In less 
than it takes to tell it, over thirty persons, including women 
and children, were killed and fourteen wounded. The rest 
escaped, while the English pillaged the cabins, and, heedless 
of sacrilege, horribly profaned the church, the sacred vessels, 
and even the adorable Body of Jesus Christ. When the 
cabins and church were one mass of devouring flames they 
fled as if in panic from the scene of their more than de- 
moniacal vengeance. 

" Thus," says Bancroft, "thus died Sebastian Rasle, the 
last of the Catholic missionaries in New England, thus 
perished the Jesuit missions and their priest, the village of 
the semi-civilized Abenaquis and their priest." Father 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 25 

Rasle was sixty-seven years old when he met his tragic 
death, and he had spent thirty-seven years of preparation, 
suffering, and unceasing toil for the salvation of the 
Indian. 

One hundred and eight years after his martyrdom our 
own lovingly remembered and esteemed prelate, Right 
Reverend Benedict Fenwick, purchased the land which 
had been dyed with his blood and consecrated by his 
death. On the 23d of August, 1833, he erected a monu- 
ment in his memory on the very spot where he gave his 
life for his Indian flock. Among those who were inter- 
ested spectators on the occasion was the grandson of one 
of the English who had taken part in the murder of 
Rasle. He informed the Bishop that, to the hour of his 
death, his grandfather ceased not to shed tears at the 
thought of that sorrowful day ; and oft'en called to mind 
that, having been wounded, he had been charitably nursed 
by one of Father Rasle's disciples, though her own husband 
had been killed by his English companions. 

No page of history, as I stated in the beginning of 
this memoir, furnishes a grander picture of self-sacrificing 
devotion and zeal for the conversion of the heathen Indian 
than is furnished by the life and heroic death of Father 
Rasle. His name will ever occupy a prominent place in 
that mighty band of Catholic heroes imbued with a spirit 
similar to his, a spirit that with humility, with modesty, 
with meekness, with patience, with forbearance, with 
obedience and charity, bore all, suffered all, risked all, 
even life itself, for the cause of humanity and the spread 
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One inspiration filled his 
whole soul and guided all his actions — the greater glory 
of God and the salvation of souls. His blood will forever 
stain the annals of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His 
Puritan murderers tried when they shed his blood to cast 
its guilt from themselves and sprinkle it upon others, but 
its guilt and its stain still clings and will forever cling to 
them and to their children as the guilt and the blood of the 
Saviour clings to a deicide nation. 

His death was regarded by the people of Massachu- 
setts as a signal triumph and deliverance. " The sudden 



26 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

destruction on that memorable day," says Dr. Codman, a 
Puritan preacher of Boston, " was the work of God ; the 
officers piously put far from themselves the honor of it, 
and he who was the father of the war, the ghostly father 
of these perfidious savages, like Balaam, the son of Boer, 
was slain among the enemy, after his vain attempts to 
curse us." Had the pious Doctor said on that memorable 
day he was slain he would have spoken more in accordance 
with truth, for there were many, even in his time, there 
have been many since, and there are many who to-day 
believe that he died at his post as a faithful soldier and 
in a manner for which he sighed and ardently prayed 
during the thirty-seven years he devoted himself, in pov- 
erty and suffering, to the welfare of the savage heathen. 

After reading the English and French-Canadian versions 
of the life and tragic death of Father Rasle, and consider- 
ing the racial, political, and religious prejudices of each 
people, I am convinced that there is but little for either 
English or French to be proud of in the whole affair. 
Father Rasle and his poor Indian flock were the victims 
of a mighty struggle that both English and French were 
engaged in for the final domination of America, a struggle 
that never ceased until England was the victor on the 
Plains of Abraham, at Quebec. No matter what may be 
said by English historians or others in justification of their 
cruel and inhuman treatment of him, the following facts, 
it seems to me, must ever condemn their conduct. 

The Norridgewock mission was established by the 
French long before the treaty of Utrecht was signed. 
The Indians, as well as Father Rasle, never admitted that 
Norridgewock was included in the territory ceded by this 
treaty, and in this belief they were encouraged by the rep- 
resentatives of the French Crown in Canada. It must also 
be borne in mind that for over a century and a quarter 
both English and French never ceased their contention on 
this very point. Nine times at least during this period 
Acadia passed either by treaty or by conquest from France 
to England and back again from England to France. It 
should be no matter of surprise that Father Rasle, being a 
a Frenchman, accepted and stood by the belief of his 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 27 

countrymen. When he arrived at Norriclgewock the 
French of Canada and the New England colonists were 
engaged in bitter warfare. No one, I care not how preju- 
diced he may be, will contend that he either advised or 
wished for a continuance of this warfare at the time of his 
advent among the Indians. The Abenaquis were the allies 
of the French, and he naturally sought to strengthen their 
friendship for his country; but his first and chief thought 
was to revive and strengthen the red men's faith in the 
truths of that religion of which he himself was a believer. 

He could not have been long among the Indians 
before he heard and even witnessed the encroachments 
of the English upon what the Indians rightfully looked 
upon as their hunting grounds. Seeing these poor chil- 
dren of nature robbed, and this but too often by legal 
trickery, of the lands made sacred by the graves of their 
fathers, his great soul must have filled with just indigna- 
tion, an indignation that was only intensified when he 
realized what a despairing and pathetic contest it was to 
be — where an unlettered race, with its simple views of 
fundamental justice, came against calculating, enlightened, 
and overwhelming might. 

Father Rasle is accused of inciting the Indian braves 
to retaliate. In view of facts related, was such incitement, 
I ask, necessary? A thousand times, no; and it is only to 
be wondered at, in view of the provocation, that savage 
retaliation was not more frequent and frightful. 

If Father Rasle sincerely felt that the Indians had 
right on their side (and such undoubtedly was his convic- 
tion), and he saw the English villages draw nearer and 
nearer to them, their hunting grounds put under culture, 
their natural parks turned into pastures, their best fields for 
corn gradually alienated, their fisheries impaired, — could 
he, I ask, if he was what he professed to be, their father 
and guide, refuse to sympathize with them in their sad lot? 
As a minister of peace he did not wish to advocate cruel 
warfare, but at the same time it can be readily understood 
that he could not forbid it when his outraged children were 
driven to it. It must not be forgotten, when we are 
shocked in reading of the bloody reprisals made by the 



28 Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 

Indians for such acts, that even the dim realization of 
inferiority on their part must have kindled, without any 
further incitement, in their benighted minds a desperate 
ferocity that even the religious influence of their missionary 
could not at times check. This very ferocity, so shocking 
to all, especially to those who would too readily condemn 
the oppressed Indian, is, after all, no matter how much it 
may be condemned, but something akin to patriotic zeal in 
more civilized defenders of native land. 

When Father Rasle saw that the white man was de- 
termined to force a relinquishment of Indian lands either 
by fair means or foul, and that no effort of negotiation or 
intrigue was omitted to accomplish this purpose, he would 
have been false to his own manhood and faithless to the 
interests of his foresc children if he did not cry out in pro- 
test with them. The fact that he was a Catholic missionary 
but made his honest indignation all the more blamable and 
the more to be resented by the English. No one who lives 
to-day and calmly and dispassionately judges men and 
events of the time of Father Rasle will deny that with Eng- 
lish and French alike a spirit of religious intolerance existed 
that was the root of much misunderstanding and ever-to- 
be-deplored wrongs. That sectarian bitterness was a lead- 
ing factor in the treatment of Father Rasle by the New 
Englanders, no one who reads the account of his cruel and 
inhuman assassination can doubt. 

At the tribunal of unbiased history I am convinced 
that Father Rasle must be held blameless for his intentions 
and his actions, for the honesty of his purposes, and even 
for what at most can only be attributed to him as involuntary 
errors. 

The Puritans who slew him persuaded themselves, and 
have ever since sought through their historians to persuade 
the world, that he was, as one of them expressed it, a 
bloody incendiary, and instrumental to most of the mis- 
chiefs that were done them, by preaching up the doctrine 
of meriting salvation by the destruction of heretics. 
(Penhallow p. 103.) 

The verdict of Puritan days, in the case of Father 
Rasle, as well as in the case of many others, like Puritanism 



Fr. Sebastian Rasle. 29 

itself, has long since ceased to bear the stamp of ab- 
solute truth, and with many we prefer to believe of 
Father Rasle, what was believed by his own brethren and 
his Catholic contemporaries, that he was and in every 
way merited what they proclaimed him to be : 

THE MARTYR MISSIONARY OF THE 
ABENAQUIS INDIANS. 



LRBf-e'lB 



iVIAY 24 1907 



